Fall of Olympus
by Mago V
Summary: What if the camps met earlier than intended all thanks to a third mythology. A sort of sequel to my previous entries but also acts as the beginning of a trilogy. Set directly after Cronus and Luke's death.
1. Qart Hadasht Burning

Hello, I am NIcholas Blackadder, Royal Scribe to his majesty King Mago the third, or the late King Mago the third. As my captures have granted me another stay of execution, so that I may publish my piece, I have taken the opportunity to write its sequel, the truth behind the Second Titan and Giant war. I have spoken with the people involved and they all offered me their sincerest condolences and agreement that I could write this. So without further ado, here it is.

 **Jason**

Jason was in his element, after charging up a mountain he and all of the other legions of Rome began their assault on Mt. Othrys. Monster after monster fell to the blades of Rome. As the Roman army inched closer to the black throne there was only one more enemy in the way, Krios. After dealing with thousands of monsters one guy with rams horns and a giant sword wasn't that intimidating, this was a mistake as a few Roman soldiers found out.

As the ten gladius armed soldiers charged forward towards Krios the later simply sidestepped and impaled three of them in quick succession before whirled around, lobbing another's head clean off. As the remaining soldiers tried to group together, in order to use their shields to an advantage, Krios managed to kick the legs out from under one as he proceeded to thrust his blade into the Roman's shoulder, as he then pulled his blade free of the body the remaining Romans fled back behind their lines.

Sensing an opening Jason grabbed a pilum from one of his men and threw it at Krios, the javelin found its mark burying deep in his right shoulder, this emitted a scream of agony from the titan, but who nonetheless still griped onto his sword.

Jason then flipped his coin and snatched his gladius from the air as he approached the Titan. Krios, who had noticed the approaching Jason readied his sword, and threw it straight at the Demigods exposed neck. Jason had just enough time to raise his shield before the long Greek sword banged into the shield causing Jason to immediately drop it, as pain seared through his left arm.

Jason, immediately recognized that his shield arm would be useless in a hand to hand fight threw his shield as a Frisbee straight at Krios, who was able to sidestep the majority of it but it still was able to strike him hard in his left arm.

As the two swordsman approached each other Jason scanned the area making sure that there were no more of Kronos's servants who could interrupt his duel, he saw no one but with his attention focused squarely on the enemy in front of him he could have missed something which he did.

Krios was the first to strike, a quick horizontal slash aimed at Jason's torso, Jason jumped back as he looked for an opening. Krios on the other hand was going all out in this fight slashing and stabbing whenever he got the chance.

Jason kept his head cool and parried or dodged all of the Titans attacks. Eventually Jason noticed he was tiring and had no choice to try to end this as soon as possible, to make one appear sooner than later Jason gritted his teeth as he allowed himself to be hit in the left shoulder as he moved in close enough to thrust his gladius straight through Krios's chest.

The army behind Jason noticed that neither of the two moved for what seemed like an hour before both of them fell to the ground, a couple of the battle medics rushed up and tried to heal the injured son of Jupiter.

"We need to get him back to the city," a medic looked up, "his Clavicle is severed in two, we can stop the blood loss here but…" he said as the other praetor approached the three.

 **Reyna**

"Go, the important part is done," she said looking around the throne room, "I can handle the rest."

"Eye, sir." the medics said as they carefully loaded Jason on a stretcher and headed back down the mountain.

"The battle is over," Reyna said as she turned around to address the army, "as we have won the battle here Kronos's power returns to nothing as he himself fades, the only thing we need to do now is to dismantle this abomination to secure that the Titans will never again threaten the empire, and as Romans I trust you know how. The first and second cohorts will begin at the top of the fortress, and the third fourth and fifth will take any valuables out of the fortress to be divided up for sacrifices and maintenance. legion out."

At her words the entire army split off in their groups to work on their assigned tasks. "Octavian, Dakota, and Robin, come with me." Reyna shouted back to the group.

"What is it." Robin, the centurion of the second cohort ,asked.

"Come with me." Reyna said as she lead the three centurions to the back of the chamber.

"What is it." Robin asked.

"Its around here," Reyna said as she began prodding the black marble wall with the but of her spear. "I noticed a golden light coming from somewhere around here while Jason was fighting Krios." Reyna said. "Really, they thought this was a good hiding place." Reyna said as she pushed on a noticeably out of place rock.

The wall started to shake and soon a section of it shifted so that they were staring down a hidden corridor.

The three of them looked each other and nodded in silent agreement, this was rather suspicious.

The three of them all filed down the dark, cold hallway stopping periodically to let their eyes adjust to the darkness. As they continued their trek the four Romans eventually entered a dimly lit room, with tapestries of mythical events hanging on the walls and a large golden sarcophagus in the center.

"Is that Saturn"? Dakota asked, staring at the golden sarcophagus.

Octavian inched closer wiping some of the dust off of it, "it seems to be more attributed with Krios the Titan that Jason just slew." he said turning around. "However the similarities stop there," he continued, "it shows lightning and mountains, attributes belonging to Jupiter, alongside the rams head, I really don't know what to make of it."

Reyna sighed, "Do you know if it could be used for a ritual of some sort"?

Octavian studied the object. "I don't know, I could try to do a little research on it back in New Rome but for now… I… all I can think of its possible uses would be to melt it down for a statue or weapons."

Reyna frowned, "Whatever it is it looks far to heavy to move by hand, we'll have to come back later with some of our siege equipment. Come on," she said as she grabbed a torch from the wall and started to leave the chamber, "let's get back to the legion."

Back outside of the tunnel the Romans had dismantled the entire fortress besides the base, which they left standing for structural reasons. One of the soldiers, Bobby approached Reyna and told her that the army was getting ready to head back to New Rome when out of nowhere a javelin flew through the air piercing Robin's chest splattering blood across the Praetor's face, as Robin fell to the ground.

"Soldiers of Rome, form formations!" Reyna yelled.

There was mass confusion as the Romans scrambled to get into positions, and just as the last soldier had gotten into his Cohort, and the Romans had their fabled, checkerboard pattern in play, a group of thirty or so heavily armored cavalry equipped with eight foot spears slammed into the second cohort.

While the newcomers were outnumbered ten to one this did nothing to stop the severity of the initial attack, while the spears that the riders carried were used proficiently, the major reason for casualties was the charging of the horses, and even after the horsemen had been surrounded the fighting did not lessen, when the horses were slain some of the riders leapt off of their horses and pulled out two foot long bent swords and continued to fight.

After another grueling hour of fighting the last of the horsemen had either been disposed of or captured.

Reyna then returned to where Robin had been shot, and found both Octavian and Dakota surrounding a pool of blood. "Where's Robin"? She asked out of breath.

Both Octavian and Dakota looked away "I don't know, if she, if she isn't with the rest of the soldiers or with the wounded or on the funeral pyre she was captured." Octavian said as he walked away to help with the dead.

 **Reyna took off her helmet and kneeled down, "Dakota," she said in an unusually calm tone, "I want those prisoners to talk. What did hey want why did they do this. Gods know the senate will want to know why there were more deaths fighting… whatever they were than monsters and Titans." She said as she shakily drew a breath and stood "Why did this have to happen today"?**


	2. Athens Burning

**Percy Jackson**

Just as Reyna was dealing with the attack Percy watched on with concern as Rachel began reciting the newest Great Prophecy

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call.

To earth or thunder, the world will fall.

An oath to keep with a final breath,

And friends bear arms to the palace of the sea .

As you can guess a lot of commotion was made over this new Great prophecy, both the Athena cabin, however a couple of the campers were more interested in the structure of the poem than the actual content, Annabeth's brother Malcolm being one of them.

 **Malcolm Pace**

After the funeral session and dinner Malcolm made his way back into his cabin, he was tired, tired of the bloodshed that the second titan war had spilled. The majority of his friends were no longer around, Castor, Lee fletcher, Michael Yew, and Charles Beckendorf had all been buried six feet under. With his solemn thoughts he found his mind drift to friend he made three years ago, a Carthaginian halfblood, a child of Eshmun, and wondered if he was still alive.

He remembered the year clearly, it was the year Percy came to camp, he went on a quest, albeit, unofficial, to bring the Punic demigod to safe haven for sons of Carthage, he remembered being presented an amulet, given to him by a high priest that could create an image projector just like an iris message.

As he started fidgeting around with his necklace he eventually grabbed the coin and headed towards the pond, he needed to talk with someone.

"Hey Malcolm, where were you, I thought you would for sure be there." Will Solace said walking back from the ponds direction.

Malcom, not knowing what the later was talking about smiled and shouldered past the crowd of campers who were heading back to their cabins. Malcolm stayed a bit by the group of cabins not wanting to be singled out by anyone before he headed straight towards the pond.

As the last of the campers entered their cabins Malcolm started back on his trek to the pond and almost walked straight into Percy and Annabeth the couple was swaying back and forth, conjoined at the hands.

"Malcolm," Annabeth asked surprised, "what are you doing out this late"? She said referring to her brothers preferred time for everyone in their cabin to be in bed, as she herself had broken a few times and felt the full brunt of an annoyed Malcolm the next morning.

"I… I need to be alone for a minute." Malcolm said struggling to get each word out.

"Are you alright, is there something I could do"? Annabeth asked a concerned look spred across her face.

"No, its... I'm fine," Malcolm tried to regain composure of himself, before doubling over and clutched his arm in pain, "gods, damn them!" he shouted, causing Annabeth and Percy to share a worried glance.

"I'm fine, I'm fine…" Malcolm tried to reassure the two of them, "I just need some rest."

"Like hell you do," Annabeth said letting go of Percy's hand. "Your wound is probably infected, Percy go get Chiron." She said turning to her boyfriend who ran off in the direction of the big house.

Annabeth sat Malcolm down and pushed his sleeve up and cursed at what she saw. "Damn it Malcolm, why didn't you get this checked out during the battle, it looks infected.

"I couldn't," Malcolm said through gritted teeth, "it was right after you got stabbed. I couldn't let… I couldn't let the Athena cabin, gah," he said wincing, "go without a leader, the chaos might have cost us…"

"Everyone was injured at that point Malcolm," Annabeth yelled at her brother, then tilted her head, "I mean besides Percy."

"No there were more," Malcolm said trying to stand up before Annabeth quickly pulled him back to the ground, and proceed to name the campers who had not been injured before giving up on the second to concentrate on his breathing and not passing out.

"It was still less than ten Malcolm, but I guess I should at least be thankful that you know how to properly remove an arrow," Annabeth as she tore part of her still wet shirt off and started to wash his wound it.

"A little… ugh... a little battlefield first aid..." he said before wincing and passing out.

 **Percy Jackson**

A few minutes later Chiron and Percy arrived "do you know what it was." Chiron asked kneeling down next to Malcolm.

"It was an arrow wound," Annabeth said standing up. "and I'm pretty sue it's infected."

"It definitely is," Chiron said placing his hand on Malcolm's forehead, "annabeth, go get a bed ready for Malcolm here in the big house, Percy can you help carry him"?

By the time the two of them had carried him to the big house Annabeth had already gotten a medical cot out from the storage and was waiting for them.

"Annabeth, go get some nectar and ambrosia, Percy, keep him from moving around while try to clean the wound." Chiron said as he pulled a surgical knife off of a cabinet.

It was halfway through Chiron's operation when he suddenly stopped and cursed. "Annabeth, go get someone from the Apollo cabin."

"What's wrong"? Annabeth asked up from feeding her half brother ambrosia.

"The arrow was poisoned, I have no idea how it was blocked from traveling through the rest of his body for the longest time but…"

Annabeth nodded her head and dashed out.

 **Annabeth Chase**

Annabeth was running towards the Apollo cabin when something on the hill caught her attention, a young man with pitch black hair and olive skin was trying to avoid getting stabbed by a Telekhine.

She cursed in ancient Greek and ran to help the boy easily sliding her dagger into the monsters rear emitting a yelp from it before it exploded in sulphury dust.

Annabeth then looked up at the boy she just saved, he was dressed in white robes and had a pouch with a symbol of a snake on it.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "you're a son of Hermes and you ct even sneak past a Telekhine"?

"What, oh this," he said referring to his pouch, "no i'm a… grandson of Apollo, Asclepius I think you would all him."

Annabeth thought for a moment than grabbed him by his wrist "you'll do." she said as she pulled him to the big house.

"I'll do for what." the unfortunate son of Asclepius asked.

"My brother Malcolm was poisoned by an arrow." Annabeth said still pulling the boy.

 **"** **Malcolm you say, carry on."**


	3. Cannae Burning

**Reyna**

"So it was after you victory over the Titans that this tragedy occurred"? Senator William Smith asked, Standing in the center of New Rome's senate building.

"Yes ," Reyna said unemotionally from where she was standing next to the senator, "It happened when four of us, Dakota, Octavian, Robin, and myself, checked out what was inside of a hidden corridor, Bobby reported on the status of the deconstruction and we were about to head out when a javelin was thrown from out of nowhere and struck Robin, presuming dead."

"Did you happen to bring the javelin back with you." Smith asked smiling smugly at the other senate members.

Reyna sighed, "No."

The senator spread his arms out, :and there you have it, the truth of the matter, While Reyna was off worrying about her _Boyfriend's_ health after his encounter with Krios, she completely missed a perfectly observable ambush planned by the Crooked one. Tell us little Praetor." William said wheeling around to face Reyna, "Who was it, Hyperion, maybe Atlas, or it might have even been Saturn himself."

"No," she repeated, ashen faced "they were mortals, while they took Robin to either remove all evidence or something else entirely, I do not know, but I can give you a detailed description of the Javelin."

The senate building broke into chaos, senator arguing with senator over why the testimony of the structure or type of javelin would matter, surprisingly it was senator William who broke the chaos and spoke first.

"Why not," William said shrugging looking around the senate. "I see no problem with this, however if she is just wasting our time..." he said, letting his words hang in the air.

"I understand." Reyna said taking a deep breath as she scanned the rest of the senators.

"Than I once again cede the floor to you." William said bowing before he rejoined the rest of the senators.

Reyna hesitated before taking a shaky breath, "Before the charging of the cavalry a lone javelin, made out what appeared to be imperial gold was thrown from an unknown location that stuck legionary Robin down, the length of the javelin was about five feet long, the entire structure of the javelin was made out of a single piece of metal, there was no wooden shaft like in a pilum." Reyna said before hardening her resolve, "this weapon wasn't made to stick off in a shield, this type of javelin was meant to pierce the armor of whoever it was thrown at, this weapon, this weapon was not Roman." She said choking up at the end.

William noticed the praetors vulnerability and tried to seize upon it, returning back to the senate's floor he yelled, "You see, as I though, she has no evidence to show that this skirmish was of the making of a third party, no," He said before smiling, "If however she had just owned up to the fact that she had let her emotions get ahold of her I might say that the senate should overlook this, tragedy." he said twisting his smile into a sneer, "However, she chose the path of liar and a coward, such a shame too, as you remember it was me myself who endorsed her when she first came to camp but no, this threat to our society must go punished.

"What are you saying!" yelled another older senator standing, "you wish to take the blame yourself"?

William cursed silently, "No, all I meant is that even if she was given a bit of leverage from me I the past, that is all but forgotten, I will now push towards the ultimate punishment given to her, as she betrayed my trust."

"Now hold here sir I say… was the last thing audible before the entire domed room broke into a chaos that was only calmed down minutes later by James Vasari, the oldest member the senate, and a veteran of the army, shouting a phrase that chilled the bones of the staunchest Roman.

"Hannibal ad portas!" the old senator yelled, "If what Reyna says is true however, then we will certainly need to take precautions." Senator Vasari yelled to the panicking crowd.

"That still is quite a big _if,_ senator." William said trying to reassert his dominance.

"I believe there's someone who could help us there." another senator said rising, "I think bringing the camp auger is in order."

Reyna nervously began fidgeting with her helmet in her hands, sure, Octavian wouldnt incriminate her without reason, but still, this briefing was taking far too long. _At least having Octavian here will decrease the amount of attention given to me,_ She thought to herself. _However on the other hand it's not like their going to believe Octavian if he just repeats what I've been saying all this time._

The time passed slowly for her, what was a ten minute walk to and back from the temple of Jupiter seemed like an hour long hike before the senator who was sent to get Octavian, and the camp auger himself arrived

Octavian entered, Reyna noticed something was different with him though, his usual confident and smug expression was replaced with one of doubt and fear, he kept fidgeting around with his hands and looking around the senate building like he was worried that senators might as well be monsters ready to jump out at him at any moment.

"Senators." he said nodding to the mass of people staring at his entrance, before heading over to stand next to Reyna, while the senator who brought him returned back to his seat, after handing senator Vasari a rolled up scroll.

"Octavian, may I presume you know what you're here for"? Vasari asked unrolling the parchment he had been handed.

"Yes sir." Octavian said looking down before he cleared his throat and met the senator's gaze as he repeated the prophecy of the seven

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call.

To earth or thunder, the world will fall.

An oath to keep with a final breath,

And friends and foes bear wits and weapons to the sea floor.

Silence followed Octavian's speech, and for a while nothing except the sound of Octavian's voice echoing off of the walls could be heard.

Than William, who had been silent for this entire time stood up and dismissed both of them, "I might have spoken too soon Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, but here this, if this is all just a ruse, nothing, and I mean nothing, will save you from what you deserve, make sure you keep that in mind before you leave the senate and burn all of your bridges forever."

Reyna stared off past the senator, _if she was found guilty of… whatever William came up with, her life in New Rome would be over._

"Come on." she was broken out of her thoughts when Octavian cleared his throat and ushered Reyna out of the building.

Outside of the senate building Octavian seemed to regain his composure, "Ignore that senator, you clearly chose the best course of action back on the field and I'm sure the senate will see that."

"Thanks Octavian," Reyna said breathing a sigh of relief, "I also should be glad that they didn't remove my command, however that could also have just been because of all of the commotion during the meeting they forgot to go through all of the proper steps." Reyna said laughing a bit.

Octavian chuckled a bit, "I wouldn't say that, most of the senators probably just don't care about this that much, Senator William just seems to have something against you, but enough doom and gloom for now, I think Jason is up now, you should go see him."

Reyna turned around to leave for the infirmary but then stopped to look back towards Octavian, "are you coming"?

To which Octavian simply shook his head, "I think I'm going to stay back and see how the senate meeting ends, you go on ahead though, give Grace my regards."

Reyna nodded and started to go off in the direction of the infirmary.

If only she had stayed behind, none of this might have happened

 **Yeah I bet none of you know where this will lead, if you think you might have a clue, well good for you and I congratulate you on your ability to read in between the lines.**


	4. Pompeii Burning

**Yeah that last authors note was sarcasm, sorry for the that and the late update.**

 **Jason Grace**

"Wait what happened, where am I"? Jason asked trying to sit up in one of the camp's medical rooms, a sterile walk in closet sized room with only the sound of a heart monitor adapted for this type of injury, for company, not remembering what had happened after his fight with Krios.

Anthony Madison, a legacy of Apollo and the head of the army hospital rushed in to hold Jason down, "Krios almost got you," he said applying more gauze to Jason's wound, before noticing his patients questioning look, "the battle went fine, mount Othrys was dismantled perfectly after you were taken off of the field." he said before stopping himself abruptly.

Jason settled back down, closing his eyes to block out the pain that was searing through his shoulder, "How long am I expected to stay in here."

"You should be fine in a day or two." Anthony said picking up a clipboard before he looked around, some worry shown in his eyes for minute before he caught himself, cleared his throat, and left the room, nodding to Jason as he went.

Jason resolved himself to another day of boredom, meanwhile his friends and comrades would be celebrating and having the time of their lives _Oh well,_ he thought to himself, _at least I probably won't have to go in front of the senate._

"Jason, thank the gods you're okay." Reyna said entering the room breaking Jason out of his stupor.

"Reyna, what happened," Jason asked siting up before wincing and clutching his shoulder, "all the doctor told me was that the battle went fine and the fortress was dismantled, but he seemed not to want to tell me something."

Reyna caught her breath before she sat down on the edge of Jason's hospital bed, "there were a few survivors after we defeated Krios, we took a few casualties but we finished the rest of them off."

Jason looked up, shocked, pressing his hand to his forehead he quickly looked down again "so you mean there were no casualties fighting the Titans army but a few survivors were able to pick off a few legionaries? I should have been there."

Reyna looked around trying to see if there were any doctors or nurses around who might overhear, "It wasn't you Jason, even before the Krios's death the enemy didn't seem to fight with any discipline," Reyna said rising from the bed to close the door, "the last group seemed to fight with a, dare I say, Roman level of discipline, the legion simply wasn't ready for a disciplined advisory than, half of the soldiers weren't even there."

"Thanks," Jason said leaning back down, taking a shaky breath he crossed his arms, massaging his wound before quickly flinching away from the pain, "who was…: Jason's words failed him, luckily Reyna understood what we wanted to ask.

"Justin Miller, Sarah Faith, Ernest Skye,... Jason remained calm and collected as the list of casualties was give to him, only displaying signs of emotion when the list was done, "Make sure to give them a proper burial today," Jason said, his voice breaking, "give all of them the same burial no matter their rank or Cohort, I want the sacrifice they gave to be emphasized over their station in the army."

Reyna nodded, standing she opened the door and left giving Jason some time alone to reflect on the day.


	5. Corinth Burning

**This chapter will be a little different as the Narrator in the second part will be the author you met in the first chapter so it will be in first person.**

 **Annabeth Chase**

Annabeth had never seen anything like it, once she mentioned her brother's name the stranger's entire demeanor changed. "What happened to Malcolm." he asked walking alongside her towards the big house.

"He got shot by a poisoned arrow and didn't tell anyone,." Annabeth sighed exasperated. "He thought he was supposed to be invincible or something stupid like that."

"That didn't sound like him at all," the man said surprised. "When I knew him he was cautious to the extent of seeming somewhat cowardly."

Annabeth sighed, "he's still like that most of the time, however when he got shot most of the cabin leaders were already incapacitated, I was just stabbed in the back by a poisoned dagger so he probably thought carrying on was best for the troops moral. Wait," Annabeth said narrowing her eyes at the newcomer, "how much do you know…" Annabeth asked stopping on the porch just outside the door to the big house.

"The war you mean," he offered, "your brother kept me updated on the accounts of the war every once and awhile," Annabeth's eyes narrowed at this, his communications stopped abruptly this summer though, I was getting worried so I decided to see for myself how you guys were doing."

"Whatever, he's inside," Annabeth said opening the door.

Annabeth noticed the room hadn't changed much since she left Chiron was still hovering over Malcolm while Percy kept holding him down.

"Hey," Percy greeted his girlfriend before a quizzical look spread across his face, "who's the stranger?" he said looking at the newcomer.

Annabeth turned to introduce the son of Asclepius but cursed silently as she remembered she forgot to ask his name. "I'm sorry," she said turning around, "but what's you name."

However the newcomer wasn't paying any attention as he greeted Chiron, "Chiron, always a pleasure." he said extending his hand.

Chiron's eyebrows rose as he took the hand extended to him, "Nicholas Blackadder, it's been a while."

 **Nicholas Blackadder**

"Anyway, I believe I have a patient to attend to." I said kneeling down next to Malcolm. "Studying medicine came as naturally to me as breathing came to a baby whale, while I needed a boost to get started, in this case it was discovering my parentage, I was soon able to do it almost absentmindedly.

I fumbled through my pack before I pulled out my supplies, a vial of anti poison for snake bites a cloth and my silver dagger.

"Wadjet poison," I said as I cleaned the wound.

"Wad..what?" Percy stumbled.

"A snake goddess in Egyptian mythology Annabeth said, to herself more as if she was trying to figure what all this meant than to tell Percy I got the feeling.

I froze, I slipped up, only Chiron, Artemis, and myself knew about the Carthaginian pantheon, I didn't want to risk revealing another culture if I didn't have to. I looked hesitantly over to Chiron who shook his head.

"It's fine master Blackadder, The four of us here would never let word get out, I've trusted Annabeth here with plenty information and she's never told anyone, I know about the Egyptians and while Percy maybe a scatterbrain at times…

"Hey." said scatterbrain interjected.

"But he is trustworthy enough not to go about spouting confidential information, and as for Malcolm, well even if he wanted to tell he couldn't." Chiron said looking at the unconscious body of Malcolm.

"My usual antitoxin isn't going to work here." I said more concerned over the fact that my oldest friend was on death's doorstep than him telling anybody anything that might endanger anyone.

"Can you do anything to help him." Annabeth asked rushing to my side.

"There is one thing that I could do, however I will need someone's aid, someone related to Malcolm will work the best."

"What do you mean?" Chiron asked, worry in his voice.

Eshmun, that is Asclepius, isn't really all that picky over sacrifices, but if there's a relation, between godly parents especially, it makes it easier for him to prevent the patient from dying a horrible, agonizing death." I said my gaze settling on Malcolm's sister.

"What do I need to do?" was Annabeth's response.

"I need to extract some of your blood." I said getting straight to the point.

"What! " Percy interjected, "what do you mean _extract_ some blood."

"It's fine Percy," she said turning towards her boyfriend, "what else."

I smiled, it was nice to see such loyalty, after years of scheming and selfish politics it was, refreshing, to see. "That's it, I'll take care of the rest. Chiron" I said turning around to face my old mentor, "keep feeding him Ambrosia, if done correctly this will sting."

"A bit?" Annabeth asked worried for her brother.

"A lot." I corrected.

I than asked Chiron to set up another hospital bed for Annabeth of which Percy quickly questioned. "Why do you need to get a bed for her what's going to happen?"

I raised both of my hands in peace, "It's just for a precaution, i don't expect anything to drastic but I'd rather not have her collapsing onto the floor."

Percy seemed to calm down a bit. The Person who was starting to freak out however surprised me.

After Chiron returned with another bed and ushered Annabeth on it he pulled me aside, Are you sure that this is safe, I know you can outperform any Apollonian healer on one of your own, but…" he said looking off into the distance, "Are you sure your healing will work on a Greek. "

I gave the old centaur a reassuring smile, "I'm sure, I've done this multiple times on people with Greek gods for parents, the only difference between you and mortals is that you can feed your guys Ambrosia and Nectar to help them deal with the pain." I said before noticing his expression hadn't changed, "It'll be fine." I said before returning to Annabeth and Malcolm.

"Percy." I said going through my bag pulling out different types of herbs, "Can you get me a wooden bowl." Percy scurried off and ran to a cupboard while I organized my ingredients by likelihood of usage.

"This is all I could find." Percy said returning with a cereal bowl.

"It should be fine I said taking the bowl from him, "Now hold Annabeth I'm going to draw the blood." I said wiping my dagger down with a disinfectant.

Percy hesitated and noticeably gulped before he went around the bed to hold onto Annabeth's shoulder. I pulled the knife out of the cloth and tapped Annabeth's arm a bit with the tip of the blade, letting her know where the cut was going to be before pressing the blade into her arm with one hand while pressing the cereal bowl under the incision to make sure no blood was lost.

It took a few minutes of hearing Annabeth's heavy breathing and audible teeth grinding before I removed the bowl and cleaned her wound applying a bandage to it tying it around her arm. "Stay down for a while." I said returning my focus to the herbal remedy I was concocting for Malcolm.

A while passed in silence while Chiron, Percy, and Annabeth watched me mix the ingredients in the bowl before I spread the paste that I mixed up onto my dagger, said a short prayer to my father in Phoenician, and dug the blades tip into Malcolm's infected wound.

The three of us waited for what seemed like hours before let a breath go that I didn't realize I was holding, "He'll be fine, just get someone to bandage his wound up I said rising to my feet, "I would do it but…" my voice trailed off, the magical process of healing Wadjet venom had taken a lot out of me and the only thing I could of right now was sleep.

 **"** **Chiron," I said yawning, I need to talk with you remind me in the morning right now I think ill just lie down here I said taking a seat on the big houses couch, falling asleep as soon as my head hit one of the couches side pillows.**


	6. Tyre Burning

**Nicholas Blackadder**

Sure I was tired and wanted to rest longer than a couple of hours before I got up again but I was here for a reason, a reason other than my audience with Chiron that is.

Getting up from the couch I looked around to make sure no one was still inside of the big house, and was relieved when the only people inside of the building were unconscious, groaning as I pulled myself up I quickly made sure that Malcolm was alright before I moved on.

Much to my relief he was right where he was left, as I removed the old gauze and replaced it with fresh gauze I noticed that the wound was closing nicely on its own and the discoloring had gone away.

"Damn" I muttered out loud before siting on the side of Malcolm's bed clutching my head in discomfort. "I really should have tried a weaker spell."

I thought about opening the medicine cupboards to find some nectar but decided against it, who knows what type of security system they have here in order to prevent half bloods from getting their hands on the food of the gods.

Taking a breath I kicked out my legs from underneath the bed and tested my weight on them, I didn't fall to the ground immediately so I decided it would be safe enough to go for a quick hike around the cabins.

As I opened the door to the porch I looked back at the unconscious figure of my old friend and my eyes moved to my equipment still lying out by the feat of the bed. Pausing for a minute I decided to leave them there, I didn't think that I would have any use for them just taking a walk around the camp.

Walking around the cabins I couldn't help but comparing the architectural style of the camp half bloods with that of our own architects style back in Chicago. Of course, it helped having god's living almost next door to you as we had it.

I found the Ares and Aphrodite cabin's most interesting, the way the paint job on Ares's cabin was almost just splashed on by the throwing the buckets at it would surely have embarrassed our war goddess but not as much as the love goddess's heavily decorated cabin that almost looked like a Barbie's house would have on our same goddess of love and passion.

Feeling better but also a little bored I decided to walk over to the sword arena, assuming no one was in I was not expecting to be confronted by half of my objective here.

Standing in the middle of the arena with a drawn stiletto* and full Greek armor, was my half, _sort of_ , sister, Drew Tanaka.

"Drew," I said startled, "fancy meeting you here."

I guess I surprised her as well as she quickly wheeled around dropping the dagger to the floor resulting in a clang that echoed through the sword arena.

"Nick." her eyes grew wide. "what are you doing here."

I raised an eyebrow, "I could be asking you the same question." I said motioning round the, arena "it's not everyday that you decide to join the others and practice your martial skills."

"Like your one to talk." she said bending down to pick up her blade, "you were always too busy to be fighting."

I smiled in sheepishness, "I must say I'm not much of a fighter, I prefer to leave that sort of skill the children of the war goddess, like yourself." Drew rolled her eyes at this but kept quiet. "Plus, I am rather curious as to why you're here in full Greek armor."

Drew sighed looking down, "the head counselor died in the last battle," she said looking up "I don't suppose Malcolm told you about it."

"You're worried about what will happen to your cabin."

Drew was silent for a moment, "more or less, she finally spoke up, "But I'm not sure if… if I would be the correct choice for head counselor, the Carthaginian blood in my veins would lead to… ah... violent and manipulative outbursts."

I nodded thinking back to the other children of Astrate, the Goddess of love, war and, pleasure, and nodded. "Drew, I said getting to the reason why I was here, "things are going to get a lot more hectic from this point on, are you sure you wouldn't like to come back with me."

Drew narrowed her eyes, while she wasn't the most academically aware person she did seem to have a knack for observing if someone was trying to get out of telling her everything.

I sighed figuring it would be better to tell her everything. "Luke didn't just revive Cronus when he tried to bring down Mt. Olympus." Drew's eyes widened but she remained quite. "You know which god is associated with the Greek Cronus don't you?"

Drew thought for a moment, "Ba'al Hammon, but what does he have to do with anything, besides he's not going to do anything rash."

I sighed wishing that were true. "He's angry Drew, how would you feel being trapped in a place you didn't belong for centuries. And it's not just Rome he wants revenge on, he blames Greece Egypt and the Norse for not seeing the Roman threat before it was too late.

Drew stared awestruck, "But surely Tanit will be able to calm him down, she's his wife."

I shook my head, "you time with the Greeks has made you soft, she's his consort, nothing more."

"Than what should we do." she asked, close to breaking down.

"I'll inform Chiron in the morning, maybe we can convince the majority of the half bloods to live in Qart Hippone and hopefully Hammon will spare them," I said looking off towards one of the straw training dummies. "But what you should do," I said looking her square in the eyes, take control of your cabin, anyway possible as soon as you can, you're the only one who knows what's coming here."

"But I can't do that, the others will just think I'm trying to take away the last thing from the dead leader."

I looked her in the eyes, "If there's one thing a Carthaginian needs to have," I said agreeing with her, "it's a respect for the dead, having said that the other thing we need is the respect of our cabin, and if that means having less friends and more enemies so be it, after all," I hardened my expression, "what's more important, having a cabin full of people who question your rule, or having a cabin with only the thoughts of your friends to keep you company as you're forced to watch all of them be lowered into the ground."

After a moment of silence I sensed I might have gone a bit over the top, "sorry," I said, "Just remember, you aren't the only one in on this, if you need to get help from Malcolm, hell know what to do."

Drew remained silent for a while before she finally spoke up again, "I'll do what I have to, but I'm not leaving camp Half-blood, it's been a home for me ever since I left Chicago, I know I'll never fully be either Greek or Carthaginian, but I thank you for giving me the choice. I just wish that I was somehow related to you.

I smiled, "by law we are."

Drew laughed, "Yeah but I'm not so sure that counts, i don't know what type of law applies to goddess marriages."

"Before I leave you to your sharp pointy objects practice I thought I'd bring you back you falcata, you always did seem to admire it more than the other children of Aphrodite."

I said pointing over to the weapons stockpile I had Percy bring here before I operated on Malcolm.

"Thank you." she said looking over to the sword before she went to pick it up, "just as I remembered." she said giving it a couple of practice swings.

"You didn't also happen to bring Jackpot and my lance." Drew asked looking up from her sword.

I frowned a little bit at the mention of Drew's horse and preferred weapon, I'd originally kept them at Chicago as part of a bartering chip, you also get your horse if you come home, however the more I thought about that the guiltier I began to feel.

I took the train." I quickly supplied, and while it wasn't an outright lie it didn't make me feel any better about it. "Ill try to bring them next time I visit."

Drew frowned a bit as I said this but quickly regained her composure, "thank you for this Nick, and thank you for everything else." She said stepping forward to hug me, I hesitated a bit before returning the hug, shed just fought a god and needed a shoulder to cry on.

"Anyway," she said pushing me away "I need to get going, the Harpies might come." Drew said as she collected her things before heading back out towards the Aphrodite cabin.

 _They wouldn't kill the Carthaginian ambassador would they._ I spent a while thinking before I made the decision to go back to the big house, even if they didn't, I didn't want to find out.

 **Now some of you may hate me for this but after a careful analysis of Drew's character I find her having more similarities with the Phoenician/Carthaginian war goddess Astrate, than Aphrodite.**

 ** ***The knife,**** ** _ **not**_** ** **the shoe.****


	7. Cherusci Burning

**In case you didn't notice the senate in this story is going to be more like the historic senate than the one created in HoO**

 **Octavian**

After returning to the temple of Jupiter for a bit Octavian entered the senate building and noticed a newcomer to the meeting, a soldier from his cohort was standing in front of the senate. Octavian, having noticed the rest of the senate stop talking when they saw him enter quietly slipped into the stands before the meeting began once again.

"We've done as you asked, all of the captured soldiers who refused to tell us anything have been executed." The soldier said, standing straight up, his helmet still in his arm splattered with blood stains.

"How many are left?"

The soldier, Henry Calveit, as Octavian remembered, remained in his structured and collected position before answering, "only one sir, and he's unconscious."

The senator who asked this grumbled a bit before he spoke up again, "Keep him alive, let Octavian handle things from here," he said turning his attention towards the Augur a cruel smile spreading across his face. "Give this new guest of ours a welcome.

Octavian looked up from his place in the senate, "You want me to show mercy to an enemy of the empire?"

"If we gain his trust than we will have all we need to know about this new threat." the senator said standing.

Octavian nodded standing up, "I understand. I'll go meet with this _barbarian_." he said drawing out the last word.

Octavian had just arrived at the military hospital outside of the captive's room where he was now talking with the soldiers who had brought him here and were guarding the captive and a doctor was inside attending to the patient.

"I was told that the prisoner was unconscious." Octavian said as he looked inside of the room, observing the tall blonde patient who was wearing a crisp white hospital gown.

"He was, he just woke up the doctor is in checking his vitals, we'll be able to interrogate him shortly after he's done."

Octavian studied the unaware patient for a while, observing his dazed and slow reactions, "tell me about him."

The guard who originally spoke up stepped forward, "that's the strange thing sir, unlike the other enemies this one," he said motioning inside of the room, "wasn't part of the raiding party, he didn't even look like he was involved with the attack."

Octavian frowned, the senate wasn't going to be happy if this one didn't have anything on the unknown enemy either, "yet you're still going to interrogate him?"

"Come with me," the guard said looking around the hospital hall before leading Octavian to the temple of Jupiter. The two of them walked in silence, ignoring the glances the residents of new Rome were giving them as the Augor and a captain of the Guard walked quickly towards the temple of Jupiter.

As they entered the temple the captain turned around digging into his pockets and pulling out three medallions, one of copper, another of silver and the final of gold, "We found separate charms like these on all the bodies and prisoners that attacked us," he said throwing the silver and copper ones to the floor, "the golden one was found on the person in the hospital right now."

Octavian took the medal from the guard and looked over it, the golden circle looked like a denarii but instead of a picture of one of the emperors there was a symbol of the moon on one side and a symbol of a peach on the other.

"We found a couple silver ones, but the majority were copper, the only golden one was from the person in the hospital. Due to the rarity and the placement of the silver medallions my guess is that the ones with silver and gold were the experienced members, but that doesn't sit well with other members of the guard, they say that because of the uniforms worn by the three classes were different from each other, the ones with copper were all wearing your usual mail and leather, while the ones wearing silver had more ornamental uniforms signifying an increased rank."

Sounds reasonable." Octavian said before handing the emulate back to the guard.

"But the fellow in the hospital wasn't wearing any armor at all, he was wearing a suit and tie." the guard said interrupting Octavian.

"So, he might be nothing more than some homeless person who somehow wandered onto the battlefield and found that medallion." Octavian asked his hopes for an easy conclusion sinking faster than a Roman trireme after having been struck by a ram.

The guard shook his head, "Not unless this homeless person also had a private investigators license, a short highlander dirk, made of some sort of imperial gold like substance, and a pistol."

"Imperial gold like substance." Octavian asked raising an eyebrow. "Thank you, I'll keep this in mind when questioning him." Octavian said looking around the temple before he had back towards the hospital.

By the time Octavian returned to the hospital the doctor had finished examining the captive and was walking out of the room, his attention fixated on his clipboard.

"How is he." Octavian asked stepping in front of him.

The doctor, surprised, almost dropped his clipboard before he looked up not expecting Octavian, "he's suffering from retrograde amnesia, I doubt that he'll be of any interest to you or the members of the senate."

Octavian was silent for a minute before the doctor sighed and spoke up again. "He doesn't remember who he is or what he was doing there."

Octavian bit his lip trying to come up with an idea to help get him in good standing with the senate. "If possible, I would still like to question."

The doctor looked back over his shoulder into the room where the patient was reading the Aeneid translated into English. "You can try, but like I said he doesn't even recall his name."

Octavian looked at the patient, he was beyond a doubt older than him as well as the majority of the other members of camp Jupiter, a beard was starting to grow on him and he was at least six feet tall from what Octavian could tell with him sitting down. Octavian looked down at the private investigator's license it was torn but the only part missing was the man's last name.

"Erik" Octavian said reading the name on the licenses, "Germanicus," Octavian said taking another look at the patient. "Erik Germanicus."

 **Malcolm Pace**

Malcolm sat up, clutching his head in pain, trying to ignore the dull throbbing he looked around for a bit confused on how he made it into the big house. It felt like he had been ran over by a parade of elephants when he tried to sit up straight. "Bloody." he whispered silently under his breath, as he tested his arm, making sure it was still functioning.

Surprisingly enough for him, Malcolm realized that the pain in his arm had diminished and that he was able to use it without any repercussions. Looking down at himself he observed his near death like physique, he had lost most of the muscle in his arms and legs and his hands were shaking unceasingly.

"I look like Mot." he heard himself whisper, before he head over to a night stand where a clean set of clothes was waiting for him. He stopped for a moment thinking about what he said than shook it off, and threw on the clean clothes. Malcolm didn't have the focus to start thinking about a change in vocabulary.

Confused, in pain and, as evident by his growling stomach, hungry Malcolm decided he should first seek out Chiron, or Dionysus Malcolm had to remind himself that if he wanted an official account of what happened since his incapacitation he'd have to have an audience with the god of wine.

Thinking of talking to the deity Malcolm's hand wandered to the jeans pocket where he always kept the medallion he was given by the high priest of Tanit back during his non official quest, only to be met with his wallet, containing twenty dollars in cash, his debit card, three golden drachmas, his Pennsylvania state I.D., and his old high school student I.D., and his new Molloy College Student I.D. Silently cursing Malcolm made his way back towards the bed he woke up on frantically looking for any signs of the medallion.

As a child of Athena, he wasn't prepared for his clumsily orchestrated search for the medallion, he was used to having a plan laid out in front of him before he rushed out into any action, while this type of methodology certainly helped him with plans, data, and outcomes, having to solve a problem that incorporated a large level of emotional attachment that needed to be fixed at that moment, ensure a hectic, clumsily executed performance, and this was exactly what happened.

Malcolm started first trying to through the sheets off the hastily made surgeon bed but stopped when he noticed a sharp pain jolt up his arm where his arrow wounds had been.

Taking in a sharp breath before he sat back down on the bed he cupped his head in his hands, to overwhelmed by his situation to do anything to improve his current situation or to notice that the front door had opened and in stepped his half-sister.

"Malcolm, you're awake." Annabeth said relieved that her brother was out of the woods.

"I guess." Malcolm responded finding the energy inside of himself to rise from the bed dusting his clothes off to hide the fact he was holding his head in his hands just a minute before.

"I take it you won't be joining the rest of the cabin for fencing practice." Annabeth said narrowing her eyes, looking over her brother's unkempt appearance.

Malcolm bit his lower lip, sure he was tired confused and hungry, but on the other hand if he didn't start doing anything to help get back in his previous athletic ability he worked so hard to gain he might never.

"It's fine, I'll be fine." Malcolm said to a shocked Annabeth, "Just don't expect anything spectacular from me, whatever medicine was given to me, while I appreciate it, seems to have given me some feverish like symptoms." Malcolm said thinking back to his previous outburst when he invoked a foreign deities name comparing that to an intrusion of his body by a bacterium leading to a fever.

Annabeth seemed to want to interject but was stopped by Malcolm.

"It's fine Annabeth," Malcolm responded holding up both of his hands in peace, "I just need to get out of here. I think some fresh air would do me well." Malcolm said motioning towards the door.

 **Annabeth Chase**

Annabeth was not having a good day, that much was certain. First off it was her turn inspect the cabins. First, there were only two cabins, inhabited cabins that is, that didn't make her want to sneak into the cabin at night and rearrange it while no one was awake. Sadly, her boyfriend wasn't one of those two.

"Honestly it's like Tyson is the maid of your cabin." she remembered scolding the red-faced son of Poseidon.

Secondly becoming an architect was her dream but she had envisioned it as planning one glorious monument to the gods at a time, not reconstructing a war-torn city, and constructing dozens of new cabins for minor gods.

All in all, she was having a hectic morning, and her daily routines of checking in on her brother had started to grow wearisome. Nicholas had already left the camp and Malcolm had been showing no signs of waking.

Needless to say, she was both ecstatic that her brother finally had woken up and guilty for half of her reasoning of her wanting him to get better was for her own personal relief.

Annabeth hesitated for a while looking at her brother's gesture, not sure what to make of her brother's sudden change in attitude. Sure, he had always been concerned with practicality and efficiency, but even out of all her siblings Malcolm had always been the most unforthcoming, and going out of his way to position himself in a social position, even if they were related, surprised her. Thinking back to the night that Malcolm had collapsed he seemed to be less like himself, more revered and secretive than ever and his outburst, however Annabeth shook it off as just him being in shock.

"Fine," she smiled, honestly pleased that she would be able to keep a closer eye on her older brother. "The rest of the cabin are already at the arena, were practicing with Arese's cabin."

Malcolm groaned, and Annabeth couldn't blame him, her own injury still ached during intense combat and while getting used to it would mean getting back into her own rigorous routine, the Ares cabin was the only combatant that the Athena cabin had trouble with.

"Anyway," Annabeth said changing the subject "I heard Molloy accepted you, congratulations."

Malcolm smiled, "it's nothing, I just wished that I could have found a way to attend a school with a larger history program that was in distance of the camp. "Annabeth cracked a smile at this, sure her brother was one of the smartest and most athletic people she knew, and still he couldn't pass a simple drivers test.

"So," Malcolm said, his expression hardening, "what have I missed"?

"Not a lot, I'm busy helping the newly claimed demigods design and plan their new cabins while Tyson has left to gather some builders to help get them built as soon as possible, and juggling all of that while searching for colleges can be a bit hectic. Other than that, everything's just as it was before your incapacitation."

Malcolm raised an eyebrow at this, they were standing outside of the Arena now and the campers who knew Malcolm had already started to head over to the two of them. "Your planning for college already? You're an incoming sophomore, take it easy for a little bit."

Annabeth shrugged, before entering the arena, "Some of us have a bigger pool of schools to look at, I for one, have already completed drivers ed."

Annabeth left Malcolm behind her forcing him to deal with the questions from their siblings by himself but could swore she heard him mutter under his breath "Some of us never lived in California."

Thankfully training wasn't a bad as it could have been, Malcolm was tasked with training some of the newer recruits, this allowed him to both gradually work his way back into his previous routine as well as avoid getting into combat that might slow his recovery time.

That being said, this meant Annabeth was in charge of the older campers, she winced realizing that this meant working with Clarisse on finding suitable partners for everyone.

"I'm glad Malcolm's back, it was getting ridiculous having to train the new campers along with the veterans." Clarisse said to Annabeth, gripping her lance while her gaze remained focused on the group of campers forming around them.

Annabeth smiled good naturedly, "Thanks, that means a lot to us."

Clarisse took a quick glance over to the area where Malcolm and her second in command Sherman Yang, were trying to organize the group of wildly energetic younger demigods. "Sherman's not that good with younger Demigods," Clarisse said grinning, "One of the only things he can't handle."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at this, "So you thought Malcolm would be able to better handle them, Sherman may not be able to handle inexperienced new recruits, but Malcolm can barely tolerate crowds of people he knows."

At this Clarisse just smiled.

Annabeth just shook her head and turned to the group of older campers not sure as to be impressed by Clarisse's thinking or offended.

 **Malcolm Pace**

Sure, he was a son of the goddess of battle but that didn't mean he was great with swords, honestly when he first came to camp other than his preference for the academic life and his grey eyes, most of the campers assumed he was a child of Apollo as both his archery and javelin skills revealed those of the sons and daughters of Apollo. But even as a self-proclaimed prodigy he had his shortcomings, fencing was unfortunately one of them. During the second Titan war he had sneaked out of the Athena cabin to practice his shadow fencing, a training exercise he started to build the techniques he would practice into becoming second nature. However, this was a practice that he hadn't done since, well, when he fainted.

Malcolm however wasn't one to back down from a challenge, scratch that, Malcolm wasn't one to back down from a non-lethal challenge, after all as Publius Cornelius Tacitus put it "He that fights and runs away, may turn and fight another day; But he that is in battle slain, will never rise to fight again.

Malcolm shook his head, _where did that come from? These foreign thoughts were coming to him, Phoenician, Roman, even English as he thought grey looked better._ Malcolm shook his head once again, he needed to focus on the training.


	8. Parthia Burning

**This chapter may not be for everyone as it has a major focus on OCs as well as aspects from the Magnus Chase series.**

A small two story Victorian style house is where the next dynasty of interest lived. It was inhabited by the Fadlan family, an Arabian American couple and their son Amir.

 **Samirah** **al-Abbas**

The inside of the house was cozy, the main living room had enough space for Sam, her two grandparents, Amir Fadlan, and his father Abdel.

"So the food is ready," Amir said coming out of the kitchen, "but father said we need to wait for someone, apparently his son from another marriage is stopping by today."

"You have a brother?" a confused Samirah asked.

Amir shrugged, "Apparently" Amir said taking a seat across the room from Sam, "I've never met him but father says he's some sort of big shot attorney living in Maryland."

"Why haven't you seen him?" a concerned Mrs. al-Abbas asked.

Abdel groaned clearly not happy about the direction this conversation was headed, "We had a falling out, after his mother died." he said.

Sam figured that there was more to the story but decided not to press the issue in front Amir, if she wanted the truth she would have to speak to Amir's brother later on the evening."

"So what's for dinner?" Mr. al-Abbas asked trying to change the sullum silence that had followed Mr. Fadlan's depressing short story.

"Falafel." Amir said without hesitation.

Sam could swear she saw her grandparents usually polite smiles wavering before Mr. Fadlan supplied, "Oh, and Gisco said he was bringing Dhansak Chawal."

"Gisco, that's an odd name?" Sam's grandfather said to his wife.

"That's you brother right?" Sam asked Amir who simply nodded.

"It's Dimli." supplied a nervous looking Mr. Fadlan, "his mother, my first wife, was Zoroastrian."

Sam cringed, sinking into her chair thinking that if this meeting went anything like history, it would end in chaos, shattered ambitions and perhaps feuds.

The five waited for a little bit longer suffering through the uncomfortable silence that followed before a sharp knock came at the outside of the door, and in stepped the young half Persian in question dressed in a form

Amir's father rose to greet his son clasped him on his shoulder and took his sons formal black jacket, revealing a crisp white shirt and black pants held up with a threaded rope belt, with, as far as Sam could make out, a golden decorated knife. Sam was about to make a comment when before he was interrupted by Mr. Fadlan "I see you weren't kidding about over protection, but perhaps you could leave your sidearm with your coat."

The son shuffled about in his pocket before Mr. Fadal added "and the other side arm." Before Gisco drew the knife from his belt and gave it to his father. "Excuse me," he said in a slightly faded Spanish accent as he left outside before returning with a steaming bowl of soup.

Gisco disappeared into the dining room before returning to the rest of the family who had at this point all risen from their headed their way into the dining room.

 **Nicholas Blackadder**

After my talk with with Chiron resulted in nothing more than promising to keep him involved in any decisions that the council decided upon, I managed to catch the ten o'clock Amtrak to Chicago.

Luckily the only attention that was given to me was due to the fact that a well dressed nineteen year old was riding on a train with no company. I managed to keep most of the attention by telling the people who asked that I was a traveling musician. Thankfully that seemed to satisfy people. Breathing a sigh of relief that I wouldn't have to prove myself somehow, I rested my arm on the windowsill and looked out the window as the familiar scenery flew past. I frowned, when I had been traveling eastward I had hoped that I would be bringing back at least my sister, but I had no companion and the two tickets I had purchased in advance for both Drew and Malcolm remained unused in my pocket.

My journey up towards the peak of Mt. Zephon was a mix blessing, while the high priest of Tanit, Gisco Anderson, had managed to convince the council of the hundred and four to replace the the smooth jazz elevator music with something else, what they failed to come up with was a variety. Beethoven's third was a nice piece, but day after day, night after night? That was a bit much. I shook my head as the elevator let out a soft ding before opening the doors to reveal the familiar sight of the marble and gold leaf decorated city of Qart Hippone.

Flanking the entrance of the small concrete pavilion used only to house the elevator, was the guard detail, Sisa Ney, a seventeen year old heiress of a notable French family and Balster Musschenbroek a seventeen year old son, and priest, of the God of Dusk, Shalim.

"NIcholas" Sisa said stabbing her javelin into the ground before stepping, forward raising her right hand in attention while raising her Corinthian helmet in the same motion. I chuckled a bit, he fact that she had no magic potential or divine favor had shaped her into one of the sternest and attentive cavalry captains. A statement that her perfectly shined chain mail,cuirass, and falcata, emphasized.

Balster however was the exact opposite, armed only with a xiphos, and dressed in the traditional dark blue robes of a priest of Shalim was expected to. While having no prominent family background, his grandmother's side had been around since the end of the Punic wars as a long line of fetchers. While he had not inherited the gift of making arrows he was one of the most formidable priests we had.

"At ease." I said still a little confused over being given military authority as I was just a scribe. Sisa stepped down and retrieved her javelin while Balster just nodded.

"Demna asked me to tell you that she wanted you to stop by when you got the chance." Balster said running a slender hand through his light blonde, almost white, unkempt hair fiddling with the sleeve of his robe.

I thanked him and continued on my way. Denma Lea was the captain of the light cavalry, members of the army fighting on horseback armed with javelins and short Greek sword if they ever got into combat.

I found myself taking a shortcut to the stables through the industrial distract, I usually preferred to take the longer route through the outskirts of the village trying to help any town watch group with any minor injuries, like for instance a snakebite, or someone shooting a stray arrow, you know little things. The imperial family decided that since I was so inept in fighting that I was to help in some other way. Today however after returning from the east coast all I wanted to do was see what Denma wanted, and then relax until dinner.

As I made my way through the side shops and workshops I got my first view of the stables, they were nothing special but still seemed to have command of the rest of the sector. The corral that jutted out from the stables was more or decoration than anything else as the horses could easily jump over the fences.

I eventually made it to the corral, as I pushed open the gate my horse, Phoenix, came up to me looking like he expected something.

I cringed feeling bad I just patted him on the muzzle before awkwardly walking towards the stable where I expected Denma would be with Phoenix following.

The stable was almost as large as the corral outside with a isle in the center almost wide enough to be able to lie three horses down next to each other and still have enough space to walk around them. Multiple horses were in the stable stalls assigned for them, either recovering from practice or hiding from the elements.

Denma was right where I expected her to be, in the stall of her horse Averti cleaning and maintaining her equipment. While I was still certain she hadn't noticed me she started talking to me without letting her head up from her saddle, a symbol more than anything as her regiment of light cavalry rode without them.

"I take it in your journey you forgot to bring back any treats for Phoenix?"

I stepped back both in embarrassment and surprise, "ah yeah, not much time to stop at an apple dealer on the way back, after Balster told me you wanted to see me I came right away."

Denma chuckled, "in my saddle bag." she said gesturing towards the said object.

I sighed, I guess this wasn't an uncommon even as I had been brought to believe if Denma had already prepared for such a situation. "Thanks." I said walking over to her saddle bag and pulled out a carrot.

I raised an eyebrow in surprise, "what happened to the apples?" I asked referring to her preferred horse nutriment.

"There not in season until October."

That made sense, I thought raising the carrot to Phoenix who eagerly accepted it.

"So what did you want to see me about?" I asked returning my attention to Denma.

Denma's usual dissatisfied expression hardened "You know how your Eshmun is known to leave Mt. Zephon occasionally?"

I have to admit, talking about my father like he's an all powerful being, which he is I guess, still kind of weirded me out a bit. "Yeah why is that so surprising, he is one of the better known canaanite gods, I'm sure he has lots of work to do."

Denma shook her head, "Maybe, but that doesn't protect him from speculation from Tanit and the rest of the pantheon."

"But what does that have to do with anything, we've known about this for years, Eshmun was one of the few god's not imprisoned after the Napoleonic wars, it would make sense for him to have more worldly contacts." I said with my confidence slipping with each word.

Denma looked around before she vaulted herself onto her horse, "come on follow me, there's something you have to see."

 **Samirah** **al-Abbas**

Dinner was interesting to say the least, Amir talked about business at his falafel stand with his father butting in to correct any misinformation that his son might have given. Sam's grandparents were content to listen to his stories but eagerly accepted the change in conversation brought about when Amir's father asked Gisco if he had thought any more on his proposition.

Gisco's eyes narrowed as he pushed his plate of nearly untouched food away from him. "Not yet, I kind of have other problems I need to deal with now."

"I get it, Mr Big-shot attorney needs to finish his case first." Amir's father said good naturally raising his hands.

Gisco seemed to struggle to maintain a neutral expression at this but tended to stay quiet for the rest of the meal.

After dinner an overwhelming urge drew Sam to the place where Mr. Fadlan had placed Gisco's golden ornately decorated knife.

Sam excused herself to the restroom while the others filtered back into the living room where they once again conversed with each other.

Sam found her way to the entrance hall and sure enough inside of a wicker basket was the knife in question along with a short pistol. As far as Sam was concerned the firearm wasn't the issue as she noticed the engravings on the knife, they looked familiar, comforting even, she knew she saw them before, she just couldn't place where that was. A crescent moon above an isosceles triangle with circle at the top.

Sam traced her fingers along the hilt before she lifted the knife out of the basket, Sam caught her breath hoping no one heard the sound of the rest of the contents of the basket resettling, the pistol, some keys and spare change.

Sam lifted the blade to eye level, it was heavier than a large kitchen knife but the blade was less than three times the width.

As Sam traced her index finger down blade she realized it was double sided as she accidentally drew blood.

Sam stifled a yelp quickly and wiped the blade off on her jeans before carefully placing it back into the basket where it had been and made her way back into the living room where the rest of the group had gathered where the young Persian lawyer was at the center of attention, as Sam's grandparents found him fascinating, or as Sam supposed was the more likely explanation, found his inclusion of soup enough to spice up the usual falafel that was served. Sam however, found him suspicious to say the least, she was well aware that people who knew the existence of the gods with no proper training seldom made it past their late teens, and reaching adulthood was almost unheard of.

The night went on with conversations ranging from the political crises in Turkey, in which Gisco was really the only partaker, to the thought of Sam's flying lessons, to which Gisco sat silently thumbing through the corners of an official looking chart book. Nodding in response from time to time while keeping a strained looking smile on his expression for the rest of the evening.

As Sam left with her grandparents she looked back towards the living room where Amir sat quietly looking uncomfortable next to his brother before noticing Sam's worried gaze and covered it with a good nature smile.

Gisco however stood up and cleared his throat before looking between Sam and Admir, suspiciously falling to rest on her swan cloak. "As apologies for my late arrival I would like to give the two of you two tickets to the Boston Opera house, there playing Wagner's Ring Cycle, if you would be interested." he said pulling the two tickets from what appeared to be a checkbook, "I had planned on attending myself, but my membership gives me two tickets, and well, lets just say my social life isn't the best."

Admir nodded graciously, "Thank you Gisco, you're too kind." and then turned his attention back towards Sam smiling as he gave her one of the tickets.

Sam meanwhile had to fight to keep a neutral expression on her face, _seriously_ she thought to herself, _a play on Norse Mythology, how much does he know?_

 **And I promise no more OCs for a while. And yes I'm well aware that Wagner's ring cycle is based on German Mythology not Norse, but Woden vs Odin**


	9. Argos Burning

**Sorry for the late updates.**

Malcolm stared down at the viola in his hands, he remembered vividly the last time he had tried it, it was freshman year in high school, he had been first chair throughout middle school, a fact that he had always made sure any member of the Apollo cabin wouldn't forget. He was naturally talented at it too unlike his backup instruments, the basset and french horns. He picked up the basset horn at the early age of eight after his father took him to the museum of musical instruments in Berlin and wouldn't shut up about it until his father had bought him one. Sure he only kept at it until he chose the viola in middle school, but still, it was the thought that counted. He shook his head before he wiped beads of sweat from his forehead, sure he would undoubtedly be rusty after this long but he decided it was worth it. After all it was only fitting that the one person who person who bested him would get a send off on his own instrument. Still, as a child of Athena rather then Apollo newer members of Apollo's cabin seemed to cast several surprised or confused glances at him as they pass him by in the instrumental storage. Of course he was used to this, being a talented musician but not a son of Apollo earned him the ire of most of the newer Apollo campers who questioned his worth as a musician. Still, the day progressed as it would any other day ending with the only substantial change in the average day at the camp, the ceremony of the deceased in which the burning of the funeral shrouds of the fallen was preluded by an orchestra composed of mainly Apollo and Athena kids, with Will Solace as first Violin, and ended with the camp silently returning to their own cabins. Malcolm followed the other musicians back to the fine arts studio to return the instruments to their cases, Malcolm approached Will Solace.

"How are you holding up?"

Will arched an eyebrow "Malcolm Pace getting sentimental, maybe that poisoning brought out you sensitive side."

"Yeah well now that I know you're still the same old you with your cutting sarcasm I should get going." Malcolm said tensing visibly.

.Will watched him silently depart calling out after him, "Thank you Malcolm, but I should be fine. Go get some rest, you deserve at least that much.

Malcolm turned around and studied Wills face for any sign of sarcasm, seeing none he turned around and sighed, "thank you, i apologize for being a bit irritable today, but i didn't wake up in the most pleasant of manners."

Will donned an impish smile that was far more suited to a child of Hermes than Apollo. "Woke up in the middle of a good dream eh, well i sympathise just last…"

"Ok ok." Malcolm grimaced, I know what you're implying and no, gods no, i just woke up feeling feverish."

"Oh," Will said visibly blushing, "well the best advice I can give to you is to get some rest and take it easy for a while."

With that the two of them headed back to there separate cabins.

"If nothing else i'm surprised how quickly things have gotten settled down." Annabeth said talking to Malcolm the next day during breakfast.

Malcolm shook his head, "i don't know, I still feel like we should remain on our guard."

Malcolm's statement seemed to cause a little bit of a stir at the Athena table, there were those who took Malcolm's advice seriously and suggested an increased watch, while the other half of the cabin sided with Annabeth ready to get back into a normal routine.

"look, " Annabeth started bringing her palm down on the table to get everybody's attention, "their may be stragglers of Kronos's army out there but their that, stragglers. They probably routed from his army when things started to look grim. While i'm not saying we should completely let our guard down just to remain vigilant while we go about our everyday activities, and if anything happens to warrant further actions i'll go discus creating a guard with Dionysus.

Malcolm nodded taking a sip of his cranberry juice "That's all I ask."

The remainder of the meal passed in relative silence, at the Athena table as the rest of the cabins still seemed to be celebrating their victory in the second Titan war.

Malcolm stood up after finishing his breakfast, gave a curt nod to Annabeth and headed to the javelin range where he would either train the newer demigods in the art of using polearms or just blow off steam himself.

Annabeth shot him a worried look, "Are you sure you can handle it alone, I'm sure Aaren wouldn't mind." Annabeth turned daring said person to object.

Malcolm narrowed his eyes, and clicked his tongue in annoyance "I'll be fine."

Annabeth returned the look before shrugging, "You know yourself the best I suppose, but do take it easy." she said before returning her attention to the rest of the cabin.

Most of the campers Malcolm instructed there were first year, just learning how to handle a weapon and which end was the dangerous part of it, there were however more experienced fighters there as well, mainly those whose strengths lied elsewhere, like some daughters and sons of Demeter, Hermes, Aphrodite and the like.

Malcolm demonstrated the proper technique of throwing a javelin, making sure none of his own, more advanced, additions shown through. "Stick with the basics for the new campers and show some of the older campers other polearms beside javelins." he thought to himself.

A spear was one the easiest weapons to learn, it combined the defensive properties of using a sword and shield with the reach of a two handed sword, in other words, perfect for those campers who really have no business being on the receiving end of a sword.

"Alright…" Malcolm said rubbing his forehead after a new camper threw a javelin at the target without remembering to let go in time resulting in the camper standing petrified as the javelin buried itself between his two feet.

"Why don't the first year campers go try archery now before we end up having casualties."

The first year campers scurried off leaving Malcolm with the veteran campers.

"Right then" Malcolm sighed, "everyone come closer." Malcolm motioned for the rest of the campers to approach him.

As they did so Malcolm scanned his students, none of them should pose him a problem even in his current state, a couple of Hermes kids he recognized, Pollux, and others. However he did frown a bit at the number of Demeter kids, sure they weren't necessarily used to warfare but they did know how to use a scythe properly.

Malcolm shook his head and grabbed his angon, "not really a Greek weapon," he thought to himself "but hey it works."

"First," Malcolm said as he held his javelin up, "as I've already told you before you always want to keep as much distance between you and your enemy," Malcolm said as he hefted his angon in his left hand, "this goes for getting in a melee fight as well, keep your opponents out of their weapon reach and don't let a swordsman past the tip of the javelin."

Malcolm shouldered his bag and called out to the campers, "I'll give you a full demonstration in the sword arena.

As the group headed over towards the sword arena a unfamiliar camper fell in line with him, a tall, black haired, presumably, daughter of Aphrodite.

Malcolm rolled his eyes, bracing himself for a lecture on how his fighting style isn't "chic" enough or whatever that word means.

The camper regarded him with a stone cold expression before trying to smooth things over with a smile that didn't seem to express her current attitude.

"So, how are you holding up." she asked her expression never softening.

Malcolm returned the stare, "good, although I don't see how it concerns you."

The camper raised an eyebrow, visibly surprised. "Well, I mean, it certainly wouldn't look good if our instructor got himself wounded by himself."

Malcolm smiled in spite of himself, "heh, yeah, I guess you're right."

Training the campers past relatively quickly, Malcolm reviewed the basics, the correct stance, bracing position and striking technique.

As the session came to a close Malcolm retrieved a single edged sword, "Now given the advantages I've shown you of a spear over a sword I want to show you a counter to an enemy might use against you."

Malcolm looked around the group of campers before motioning for Pollux to come forward, "now given my training I want you to come at me with everything you've got.

Malcolm waited for Pollux to raise his spear in an attempt to go over Malcolm's shield to strike Malcolm in the head, who in turn flipped his shield inward catching the point of Pollux's spear brushing it aside before stepping in closer to Pollux eliminating the advantage of range that Pollux had just a few minutes before.

Malcolm placed the edge of his sword against Pollux's shoulder before offering advice, "choke up on your spear." Malcolm said before taking a step back preparing to strike again.

Right before Malcolm was about to strike downward when a searing pain spread through his head and downwards through his body forcing him to drop his shield and grasp his left arm in pain cursing under his breath.

Pollux, who was about to swing his shortened spear at Malcolms legs, dropped his spear and took a step back. "Malcolm, are you ok?" he asked unsure of if this was just some ploy to get him to lower his guard.

Malcolm took a couple of deep breaths before straightening back up, "yes, yes, I'm fine … I just need some rest, the lesson is over you guys can continue practicing with each other or just end the session now." Malcolm said before grabbing his angon and left using the pole arm as a sort of makeshift crutch.

As Malcolm was just outside the sword arena he noticed that the camper from earlier was following him, "Do you want something." he asked.

The girl studied Malcolm for bit before responding, "Get some rest." he looked like she wanted to say more but bit her lip and headed back towards her cabin.


	10. Suebi Burning

**OK so I Lied**

 **?**

The blond young man was still incredibly confused, he had no idea where he was, or who he was, he did know one thing though, and that was that his head hurt like hell. Grabbing his head to suppress a dull throbbing pain.

But most of all he was confused by the two Roman reenactors standing just outside of his room, sure he wasn't that sure of anything right now but he did have a vague memory that the Romans were destroyed some hundreds of years ago. Still that made even less sense to him "How the bloody hell did I end up in Italy" he thought to himself."

He shook his head still no more informed than when that teenager, who had called himself Octavian, had interrogated him. In fact that just made him more confused, frowning as he tried for what seemed like the one millionth time to remember anything about himself.

He stayed like that for some time before a loud noise somewhere down the hallway snapped him back to reality, as his hand shot to his pocket as if entirely on its own. He frowned again still unsure why he did that.

He returned to reading the Aeneid that he had put down for a while, at least he wouldn't die of boredom he thought to himself, between the never ending mysteries and the books he could stay here for quite a while, however his right hand would keep twitching as if it remembered something that he couldn't.

He returned his attention to the book for a minute before his concentration was interrupted by the same young man who had interrogated him earlier during his stay..

"Erik Germanicus " he said almost authoritatively, supposedly talking to the man as there was no one else in the room."

The blond, that is, Erik, rose an eyebrow as he pushed his annoyingly long hair out of his eyes. "Yes"

The young man who had interrupted his reading continued to speak, "The doctors say that you should be able to leave soon, but without any knowledge on who you are I was wondering on what you planned to do?" Erik put the book down, "get out of here and go…" his voice trailed off while he was trying to think of a destination.

"As I was saying," the person said continuing, "we have a… an opening… for a … person… of your caliber I suppose." he said struggling to get his words out.

"What I mean is that you seem like you can hold yourself in a fight is what i'm getting at, would you agree?"

The man rolled his eyes, both confused of where this line of question was headed and insulted that the one asking the questions looked to still be in school.

"And why would that be important?" Erik asked his mind racing trying to figure out what the kid meant before he was able to cover it up in words of honey and lies.

The kid responded almost too quickly, like this was almost second nature to him, "as you can probably glimpse from your, eh, condition," he said motioning towards him, "your wanted dead by someone or something." The kid said.

Erik waited for a little bit for further explanation, for some reason he wasn't that surprised when he was told that he was wanted dead, it almost seemed, _comforting,_ no that wasn't it, maybe not comforting but definitely familiar.

The kid went on after seeing his words had no effect on the man. "This might be a bit of a shock but the mythology of Ancient Rome isn't gone, the gods are still alive and well."

The room was unfolded in an awkward silence, this top felt strangely familiar to Erik as strange as it sounded Erik remained a neutral face, not daring to give away any trace of feeling in front of the young man standing in front of him.

"If you were aware of this before your, ehh, incapacitation, that might explain why you were attacked if not, I'm afraid you'll be in significantly more danger now than before as you'll start seeing things for what they are."

Erik remained silent forcing Octavian to continue.

"You… don't seem that surprised about what I'm saying, he said raising an eyebrow, most people who are brought here from the outside can't stop denying what's starting them in the face, how come your so calm." Octavian said stepping forward.

Erik leaned back in his chair stretching out, "Don't take this the wrong way but I have little faith in the words of others, I'll be persuaded through what I observe when I get out of here, I'll let you know what I believe then.

"Fine," Octavian said through gritted teeth, "after that I want you to listen to my proposition."


	11. Syracuse Burning

**Malcolm Pace**

"Seriously Malcolm, am I going to have to babysit you until you recover," Annabeth said leaning against the entrance to the Athena cabin where Malcolm sat leaning up against his bed flipping a golden drachma up in the air. "just take it easy for a while." Annabeth said in a authoritarian tone she never used before with her older brother.

Malcolm avoided eye contact and nodded, knowing full well not to argue with her younger sisters _consular_ tone of voice.

"I'll give it another week before returning to my full schedule if that's alright with you, nurse practitioner." Malcolm said as he pocketed the coin.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at the sarcasm, "that should leave you with one week of counseling before you head to school, so do try to recover by then." She said as heading out the cabin door before stopping in the doorway hesitantly turned around, "I suppose you'd want to know that it was Blackadder who healed you." Annabeth said with one foot out of the cabin when Malcolm's voice cut her off.

"What was he doing here?" Malcolm asked as he looked back towards his sister who only shrugged.

I'm not sure, I heard him mention to Chiron that he wanted to talk to a couple of campers one of which I assume was you, Annabeth said tilting her head a bit to the side before she continued on, "but other than that I was too busy attending to camp matters to think to ask about it, sorry. She said biting the corner of her lower lip. "I assume Chiron would know though." Annabeth said straightening back up

Malcolm straightened up a bit pushing himself upright off the cabin's floor, "Thanks Annabeth, I'll go see Chiron later."

Annabeth looked her brother over, clearly not trusting Malcolm to wait that long but eventually leaving as she had other things to do.

Malcolm waited a little while before he followed Annabeth out of the cabin and headed straight to the archery field where Chiron would be at the moment teaching new campers how to use a bow.

Malcolm chuckled a bit as he witnessed the scene unfolding in front of him, sure he knew better than to laugh at fresh recruits but the seriousness of training demigods prior to Titan war had been replaced with a feeling of that of other summer camps he had attended. As he unhooked the gate from the range Chiron, who had been adjusting a bow in the hands of a relatively new camper, a son of Hermes Malcolm thought to himself.

"Ahh, Malcolm." Chiron said as he gave the bow back to the camper and made his way over to Malcolm, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Malcolm offered the old centaur a smile, "I thought I might see how others are holding out."

Chiron chuckled a bit, "well as you can see for yourself not all that good but on the other hand," Chiron said looking back at the ragtag group of new campers barely hitting their targets, "we don't have a time limit now." he said turning back to face Malcolm.

Malcolm nodded "I guess that's one good thing that came out of all of this, the rest of our lives will seem like a walk in the park, anyway Chiron," Malcolm said, his face regaining his usual seriousness. "Annabeth told me that Nick was back."

At this Chiron's face lost his cheerfulness, "yeah, he returned and wanted to talk to a couple of us but you were unconscious at the time, he was the one that worked on you.

Malcolm nodded, "Yeah, Annabeth told me that, why did he come in the first place though?"

Chiron remained stone faced for a while before calling out to the campers "all right, archery is over make sure you all attend your next lesson and remember to clean your cabins for inspection.

As the new campers all filed out Chiron turned back to Malcolm whispering to him "Go announce a meeting in the rec room with all of the Cabin counselors yourself and Drew Tanaka." at this Chiron tilted his head before adding, "If she's not also the senior counselor." at noticing Malcolms blank expression he added, "member of the Aphrodite cabin." and Malcolm nodded and ran off.

Chiron patently tapped his hoof against the floor as the room waited for the senior counselor of the Aphrodite cabin to arrive, Drew, the other member of the Aphrodite cabin seemed to be just as confused as she was seated on Malcolms left anxiously tapping her finger against the table, as those two actions were the only disturbances of the silence Annabeth leaned over to Malcolm and whispered

"Seriously Malcolm, and I thought Percy had a bad case of ADHD but you cant even wait until an hour after tI tell you to calm down to go talk to Chiron?"

Malcolm just shrugged as Percy reentered taking his seat on Annabeth's right, "well apparently they still don't have a senior counselor so it looks like this is it." Percy said addressing Chiron.

Chiron nodded, "well as long as one of them is here I guess in order to move this procedure along I nominate the Aphrodite representative here now as Senior counselor."

Drew opened her mouth about to protest but was cut off by Chiron

"Now we should really get to the matter at hand, as a couple of you might have been aware of,

" he said looking at Annabeth and Percy a few days ago we had an unexpected visitor, welcome nonetheless." at this Annabeth nodded slowly while Percy stared ahead of him for a while before he to nodded his head in agreement.

Chiron went on, "This visitor first came to this camp a around the same day as Mr. Jackson before he was quickly, ehh, transferred for lack of a better word…"

"You mean Lewis?" Travis blurted out

Chiron stared at him for a bit before continuing on "No, ah, his name was Nicholas Blackadder, a son of the Phoenician god Eshmun

That's when everyone seemed to talk at once besides himself and the girl who was situated on his left Malcolm noticed, mostly asking each other what, Phoenician, was and who Eshmun was with the exception of Annabeth who seemed more annoyed that this knowledge was kept from her than anything else,

Annabeth narrowed her eyes in skepticism and looked Malcolm in the eyes, "Wait, so for how long have you known about this and not have told me?"

Malcolm cringed, it was kind of foolish to think he could have hidden something this large from her for so long without letting something slip, "a couple days after Percy and you had already left on your first quest."

"Quiet all of you!" Dionysus shouted the first time he had spoken at the meeting, that seemed to have done the trick as everyone remained frozen where they were while no one dared talk besides Chiron who sighed before he continued, "I think it would be for the best if Malcolm would tell you how he came upon this.

All eyes turned to Malcolm as he just sighed and stood up. He started recounting his story of how he met Nicholas Blackadder keeping any mention of cultures besides the Carthaginian out of the narrative. "Which leads us to the present," Malcolm said winding the story down as he motioned for Chiron to retake control of meeting.

"Wait so all of this happened during the same time I came here?" Percy asked confused, "wouldn't I have known him then?"

"Well, you weren't really in the Hermes cabin for that long." Annabeth quickly supplied.

"Anyway," Chiron cleared his throat regaining attention, "The point is that according to him the awakening of Kronos has somehow given his Carthaginian equivalent, Ba'al Hammon, the power to escape from his bonds that were placed on him sometime after the first world war.

That's when Drew spoke up, "Nicholas spoke to me the Night before he left,"at this Chiron rose an eyebrow and drew seemed to cringe at her poor word choice but kept going, "I was in the arena, he had just finished working on Malcolm and was taking a walk around the camp to clear his mind…"

At this point Jake Mason pointed at Drew, "why does a child of aphrodite know this much about what's going on."

Drew stuttered "I'm...a… descendant of Astarte, I lived in Chicago for part of my life."

"Chicago, what does that have to do with anything?" Will Solace asked confused as he bounced a ping pong ball on the table.

That's where the Carthaginian demigods live Malcolm said, still more focused on the fact that Drew had actually known about all of his since before he had.

"Anyway," Drew continued, "Nicholas advised that we relocate to Chicago for the time being so that the we might be spared the destruction caused by Hammon if he revives himself completely, as well as be under security of the sacred band.

Percy leaned over to his girlfriend "Sacred band?" he whispered.

The sacred band was the Carthaginian civilian military way back when correct? She feigned ignorance asking Drew.

"Umm, yes," Drew said looking at Annabeth surprised for a bit, "they have two branches, the cavalry, and the infantry, the cavalry are under the direct orders of the emperor while the infantry I believe are the senate's elite force. She said closing her eyes tightly shut.

Chiron shook his head, "back to the subject on hand, I don't think we need to start evacuations just yet, but I do believe a regular communication between us and them would a be a good place to start."

Drew nodded "I second that."

Malcolm agreed and later the entire room had unanimously agreed to that idea.

Malcolm stood up and faced Chiron, "Chiron, back when I visited Chicago the minister or whatever he was gave me a medallion that would allow me to contact anyone as long as there was a still pool of water nearby."

"You mean like an Iris message but just as inconvenient?" Percy asked.

I thought about it for a bit and sheepishly agreed, yeah, I didn't really think about it like that."

Chiron galloped out of the big house with the rest of the meeting following him. Chiron had already gotten a hose and offered Iris a Drachma as a shaky image of Gisco Anderson appeared in front of them accompanied by a soft recording of one of Bach's fugues.

Chiron looked the man over looking at him up and down, the thin man seemed to have a permanent frown on his face, his black hair combed neatly along his parting line giving him the exact look of an overworked lawyer.

"Chiron," the man said trying not to look to miserable in front of a group of people he had never met before. "How are you doing?"

Chiron studied him for a minute before he went on, "How long have you known about the whole Kronos strengthening Ba'al Hammon idea.

Gisco remained motionless for a minute pressing his folded hands up against his forehead before he rose and started speaking again, "Not that long, of course, only the highest over here are aware of this… problem." he said as he lifted the needle up off of the disk and pressed the stop button.

"As I've been informed by Blackadder you've chosen to stay where you are," Gisco said retaking his seat," while this may end up dangerous for you camp I think it will help to have a front in the east, also if need be I can send a regiment of soldiers to help secure your borders and train your campers." Gisco said shuffling around the papers on his desk.

Chiron sighed, "I'll hold off on that, I don't want to cause a panic before we know what we're up against."

Gisco nodded and ceased rummaging through his desk, "be that as it may, I feel as though should at least send an ambassador over to your camp to help oversea the eastern defenses."

Chiron huffed in annoyance, "I won't stop you but im not entirely sure I would approve of the whole fight the battle on our land part."

Gisco nodded once again, "look I understand, you just finished dealing with your own problem, but as of now it's just a precaution."

"I think you can call it more than just a problem." Katie Gardener said leaning over to Annabeth.

Chiron's face tourney sour, like he had just attended the funeral of every single dog. "Do what you will," Chiron said shaking his head. "we will be sure to take care of whoever you send."

Gisco smiles before lazily waving his hand through the iris message leaving the senior counselors staring at a leaking hose.

Chiron sighed heavily as he turned back to us his expression conveying no emotion." I'm sure I don't have to tell you not to mention this to anyone else here at camp."

Annabeth, Percy, and couple other campers nodded silently while the others looked around at each other still confused having no idea what was going on.

This however did not seem to face Chiron as he simply grunted in response, nodded, and strode off back into the big house.

As Malcolm was about to head out as well, he wanted to try recovering some of his combat skill that he had lost over the last few weeks, his sister grabbed his arm and shot a look at Drew that Malcolm immediately understood. " _We need to get out of here and talk about this."_

Drew for her part shrugged it off nonchalantly and followed the other three of them while Malcolm scurried along and Percy followed his girlfriend uncomfortably as if thinking why did I get myself involved with this, or at least, that's what Malcolm thought he would be thinking in his place.

"Where are we going." both Percy and Malcolm seemed to ask at once.

Annabeth's only response was, "Away from prying eyes." as she lead them into the stables.

At their abrupt entrance some o the pegasi whinnied but they later calmed down as they noticed Percy's entrance.

"Okay," Annabeth said her voice dangerously calm, "Why in Hades name didn't you tell me anything about this." she demanded looking accusingly at Malcolm.

Malcolm stuterd for a response, sure he was aware that all along he had kept a secret from Annabeth, one of his closest confidants at camp, but he hadn't had any other choice.

"It was a … request from a certain goddess." he said trying to remember all that had happened after he brought Nicholas to camp.

"Which one?" Annabeth threw her hands up in the air "because according to you Chiron and Drew there are a whole lot more than just the Greek ones."

Malcolm looked at Drew for help but she had either lost interest in conversation, or more likely was doing her best not to get involved in the siblings feud.

It wa Percy though who saved Malcolm from his sisters wrath, "Annabeth, if it was a goddess who told him maybe getting all hostile on him isn't the best idea.

Annabeth sighed as she relaxed her shoulders, "I'm sorry Malcolm but I just don't like being in the dark."

Annabeth remained collected but turned to Drew this time, "so how did you get wound into all of this?"

Drew remained still for a while before she stood up and drew a thin dagger out of its hidden sheath on her shoulder and held it out to Annabeth.

"I got this from an ancestor on my father's side, you can see her symbols along the hilt."

Annabeth turned the knife around in her hands "A dove, a lion, and a horse."

"The dove is the symbol of aphrodite right?" Percy asked frowning, "Than what are the other symbols there for."

Annabeth continued to look at the knife as she spoke "These all are symbols of some Carthaginian god or goddess right?" Annabeth seemed to ask herself more than anyone else.

Malcolm nodded "Their war and love goddess," he said rummaging around his pocket before mumbled a curse in ancient Greek. "I had a medallion that one of their officials gave me after I saw Nick off but I seem to have lost it that night that I fainted."

Annabeth pursed her lips, So your descended from her."

Drew nodded, her expression emotionless. "I left my horse and lance back at Chicago so as not to arouse too much suspicion but I suppose..." she trailed off.

Annabeth shook her head, "It doesn't matter come on it's almost dinnertime we should head back to our cabin." she said heading to the stables exit.


	12. Agrigento Burning

**Quick Authors note, I do not go, nor have I ever been to Molloy but I have been to college so I apologize to any of you who do go or have ever been to Molloy also I got the name wrong for the last two times I mentioned her, it's Astarte not Astrate, remember that, Also, I do enjoy reviews, anytype just to let me know what I'm doing right, if anything. Also, the name revealed later on isn't a reference to the priest who Peter cut their ear off but the last Didonian monarch of Carthage.**

The rest of the remaining time Malcolm spent at Camp Half Blood went by pretty calmly, your usual monster attack once a week training the newer demigods, primarily in using polearms and ancient Greek and having his ass handed to him by Clarisse or other seasoned polearm users.

"Your getting better, your almost at the skill level you were at before your incident." Clarisse said having hardly broken a sweat. "Make sure you keep this up I want a challenge next time Pace.

Besides the sense of calm that hung over the camp thanks to the Titan's defeat, the rest of Malcolm's stay at Camp half blood seemed normal, or as normal as any of this could seem Malcolm thought to himself.

The end of the summer season had come and he, as well as all of the other summer campers were packing up and making sure that they had everything they needed.

Malcolm smiled in spite of himself, the Athena campers had always either been some of the most efficient campers or those who would lug all of the references they thought they would need for the entire year with them.

Annabeth had her backpack and a small cary on size dufel bag, whereas Malcolm had cut down from a backpack and an oversized duffel bag his first year to one medium sized satchel.

The whole thing started back on his first year at camp Annabeth and he called it the year of back problams, anyway there were more new comers to the camp that year than most and most of them were aphrodite campers this led senior counselor at the time, Reginald, to declare a challenge after he and the other senior counselors situated everyone that next year the child of Athena who had the lightest amount of gear would be rewarded. Malcolm frowned though remembering that the reward was never given as Reginald had been killed the following year by a basilisk.

He shook his head and walked over to Annabeth slinging his satchel over his left shoulder, "Well,Im off," he said taking Annabeth's outstretched hand "don't do anything I wouldn't do." Annabeth stifled a chuckle, she was glad the dry humor had returned to her brother.

"You do realize we all live in the same hellish nightmare landscape right?"Annabeth said tilting her head.

Malcolm smiled "Just don't go dying on me."

Annabeth rolled her eyes but followed her brother out of the cabin and walked besides him on their way to the big house where Malcolm would officially sign out for the summer term.

As they made their way through the camp admiring the new cabins that had been built and that were being built Annabeth spoke up, "going back to California is going to be difficult, even if just for a week."

Malcolm followed her gaze and nodded, "Yeah, I can see that, don't worry though, Im sure Olympus can get by for a week not looking its best."

"Yeah that too." Annabeth said her ears turning red as she continued looking at the row of cabins.

"Hey, you two." a new voice shouted over to them unnoticed.

"What do you mean by that?" Malcolm asked turning towards Annabeth

Absolutely nothing." Annabeth said regaining her composure. "It will be nice to see the twins again though."

"Hey, Im talking to you." a girl Malcolm had never seen before wove her arms up and down in front of them. "Can you not see me or what?"

Malcolm looked over to Annabeth who was just as confused as he was. "Uhh, what do you need." Malcolm eventually forced out.

"I need some help getting my bodyguard inside of this camp." The girl said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Bodyguard?"

"Do you mean your protector?" Annabeth shot me a quizzical look.

"Mmm, sure why not." the girl said leading the two of us back towards the camps border.

This gave both Annabeth Malcolm a chance to examine her more closely, she seemed to be in a normal camper attire hiking boots, blue jeans and a red t-shirt that had been stained by some substance or other, her hair was black and her skin was olive coloured which Malcolm was able to tell came from some part of the southern mediterranean.

"So," Annabeth started, "has everything been told to you?"

The girl slowed down when she spoke, "You mean about the gods, yeah sure, I've heard it all before."

Annabeth and Malcolm shared an uneasy look, "have you been here before I'm sorry but i don't quite recognize you.

The girl stopped walking altogether and turned around, "Nope, but my father is … Asclepius and I've been told all about the gods by my… ah… protector yes that's it."

Annabeth and Malcolm shared another look, this has got to be some sort of joke at best and at worst some sort of trap.

Malcolm silently cursed himself for leaving his angon at the arena but followed.

As the three of them finally made it to Thalia's tree the girl motioned underneath the tree and Malcolm nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Ok, who are you guys, your clearly not new to this," Annabeth said motioning to the new guys armor, seven foot spear at his right leaning against the tree, a falcata still in its sheath at his side, and a thracian style helmet that he was holding under his left arm.

"Malchus Svensson," the man said standing sticking his hand out "High priest of Astarte."

Back in the big house Chiron gave them a once over, "Gisco sure didn't spare any time sending advisors." Chiron said the words like it pained him.

I'm assuming that you'll want to stay in the Ares cabin," he said looking at Malchus "as opposed to the Aphrodite one."

Malchus shrugged, "either one is fine with me."

Chiron nodded and turned his attention to the girl. "Sofia Murphy, congratulations, you are the head counselor of the Asclepius cabin." Chiron said with a dry smile.

Annabeth nudged the centaur, "Sir, that one hasn't been finished yet."

Chiron sighed "fine then, go tell Will Solace your a new camper and get you a bunk ."

Chiron than volunteered the two of us to give the new arrivals a tour around camp, despite the fact that we were both leaving relatively soon.

"Great." Annabeth and Malcolm said together in feigned enthusiasm as we turned to the new campers.

The tour itself went fine Malcolm supposed, as they had been introduced as the aid that the Carthaginians had sent they seemed to have no objections to living in a world full of Greek demigods.

Sofia herself was a daughter of Eshmun, the Carthaginian god of healing, while Malchus was an ordinary mortal, such the trouble getting in the camp's borders.

The first stop on the tour was the back of the big house, where the makeshift infirmary was, Chiron had suggested outfitting himself in normal camper gear, for the tour at least, so as not to arouse suspicion.

As Malchus ws changing into jeans and an orange camp half blood tee-shirt Annabeth striked up a conversation with Sofia.

"So," she started, leaning against the edge of the ping pong table as she, looked Sofia up and down, "when were you first introduced to the whole god world?"

"Three years ago," Sofia said looking around the room, her eyes coming to rest on an empty container of cheese whiz that sat crumpled up on the ping pong table.

Annabeth waited for elaboration but got none and was interrupted by Malchus rejoining the group.

"What's next." he asked.

We gave the both of them the briefest tour we could manage figuring that the senior campers of their cabins would be able to give them more detailed tours.

"Well,"Malcolm said facing Annabeth outside the Apollo cabin having just dropped Sofia off, "good luck in school and try not get in to too much trouble.

After returning home Malcolm started packing again again, this time however it was to go to university. Malcolm had left some of his more specialised gear back at camp, such as his sleeping bag, a travel size pillow, and my spear, as was probably a good idea. Instead he packed more clothes books and other school essentials, as well as a small celestial bronze dagger.

Malcolm arrived for university orientation the following week, and after saying farewell to his father found his way to his orientation group, a small group of young adults including a nervous looking twitchy black haired boy with slim rimmed glasses, an impatient looking blonde girl stood leaning against the student union's wall, and two others who seemed to be brother and sister who were busy talking to each other in hushed voices.

Malcolm pulled his schedule out of his satchel and ran his eyes over the document trying to decipher when their orientation leader would arrive as he happened to overhear some of the supposed siblings conversation.

"I don't know, I thought he was supposed to be here by now." the boy said.

"Well, I guess we just have to find it ourselves." the girl said looking as I quickly refocused my entire attention on the sheet of paper in my hands.

"Do you know what time the orientation leader is supposed to get hear, I have to prepare for my lab class tomorrow."

Malcolm looked up from the schedule he wasn't really reading and noticed the blonde girl staring over her glasses at him.

Malcolm shrugged as he put the schedule back into his satchel, "Orientation was supposed to have started five minutes ago."

"The girl scoffed at him, "I realise that, I asked what time the orientation leader was going to get here?"

Malcolm shifted his attention to the girl raising his eyebrow as he realised how similar she was to his siblings from the Athena cabin.

The girl rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest and Malcolm went back to standing around waiting for the leader.

The four of us waited around for a bit longer before the orientation leader, Franklin, a senior member of the tennis team who seemed uninterested in the whole ordeal, arrived and we began the orientation program that mainly consisted of going over the book, that he had no time to read and talking about life on campus, even though he will be heading back to camp during the weekends, and extracurriculars, which he already knew about. Eventually however the last of the freshman introductory programs were over and Malcolm was able to finally return to his dormitory to read the assigned reading for my empires in east asia.

The first week seemed to fly by, of course, the week started on the thursday so there's that, and his roomate seemed just as an introvert as he was and usually kept to himself, which Malcolm was fine with, and his first lab class started the next week.

Malcolm thought that none of the classes he was taking this semester seemed too challenging but on the down side most of his classes were general education classes that all students needed to take meening most of his classes he might have the unfortione of being paired with a business major.

As luck would shine on him however in his classics course he was paired up with the girl who he had met earlier during orientation, who happened to be a neuroscience major, and two others, a foreign exchange student from russia, and a political science major who seemed to be the only one who had actually read the reading that they were assigned the previous class.

"Did any of you guys actually pay attention to the last lecture?" the scrawny

The blonde haired neuroscience major let out an exasperated sigh before skimming through the text, while the foreign exchange student shrugged his shoulders, "I didn't get here until yesterday, I couldn't have known the reading."

The boy sighed as he eyed Malcolm "and what's your excuse, too busy watching the World Cup or whatever?"

Malcolm raised an eyebrow _this kid is rather strange "_ No," he said clearing his throat his hand resting on the book. "Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures…"

The kid held up his hands in surrender as the class continued until it's eventual ending

Malcolm waited around for a while after class had ended standing close to the exit as the majority of the class started to file out through one of the two exits, while the others stayed behind for a while either to talk with each other or the professor.

As Malcolm made his way out of the lecture hall having after asking the professor about the study abroad program he heard his name called out and noticed it was the Neuroscience major.

"That was some fast reading," she said looking him up and down for a minute a look Malcolm was all too familiar with, as if she was looking for that one chink in your armor.

Malcolm brushed his hair out of his eyes, _damn_ he thought _I really need a haircut._

"But seriously," the girl continued how did you know the introduction to the book if you didn't read it?"

Malcolm shrugged, "It's not that hard to guess the beginning of a textbook, their usually pretty much all the same."

The girl smiled before sticking her hand out as she introduced herself, "Lucia Conrad."

"Malcolm Pace," Malcolm responded, "so, how come you chose Molly?" He asked having come up with no more original question.

"I got a good scholarship and they have a good nursing program which was what I originally was going in to, you?" She asked as the two of them started heading out of the humanities building.

"Same, I mean besides the nursing part, but I live in Pennsylvania however I also have a place in Manhattan."

Lucia raised an eyebrow at that, "You have a second place in Manhattan, your family must be doing well."

Malcolm shrugged, "My father's an attorney so I guess you might say that."

The two of them continued on their way walking down the main campus drive as the both headed to the food court for lunch.

As the two of them ordered and took their off brand Sbarros varros or whatever, and ate ate on the commons, Malcolm found it a comforting reminder of the pizza he would get at camp-halfblood, however he heard Lucia muter under her breath tha she have to stock up on midwestern pizza whenever she would go home for break. Malcolm ignored that as he continued eating his slice.

A few minutes later Malcolm finished his slice he checked his phone for the time and clicked his tongue, "Well, nice meeting you but I should get going to my next class." Malcolm said rising as he slid his phone back into his pocket.

Lucia noded and we both headed our separate ways, Lucia to her next class, presumably, and Malcolm back to his dorm to retrieve his supplies for his next class.

On his way back to his dorm though, somewhere in between the busstop and the bookstore, Malcolm noticed the brother and sister pair he had been in orientation with speaking in hushed voices just outside the bookstore, the girl frantically waving her arms around while the boy seemed more interested in looking inside the bookstore bag at what he had just bought.

Malcolm shook his head, paying it no more attention than usual, which was to say very little, and almost completely forgot about the incident had it not been for what happened a week later.

Malcolm having no car or drivers license was completely at the mercy of the public transit, which would have worked better had there been any bus stops near any large stores for supplies, the Grey sisters, Malcolm had heard bad things about them from Annabeth, which left getting rides from friends.

This seemingly easy situation would have the obvious solution however most of his friends had conflicting schedules, yeah sure all two of them but still.

Sorry I'm late." Lucia said coming out of the natural science center, barely stopping to acknowledge Malcolm before she started walking towards the parking lot where her Toyota Corolla was or whatever it was, as mentioned before Malcolm wasn't the best at cars.

"Also, were going to pick up my lab partner on the way." she said hopping into the car before she started adjusting the rear view mirror, which Malcolm thought a little strange but followed suit into the passenger seat.

"It's no problem," Malcolm responded "and thanks again for the ride."

Lucia turned the car on looking behind her as she pulled out of the spot "well, the first full week of classes is over,"

Malcolm nodded silently as he looked out of the cars window trying to map out the surroundings of the campus in his mind.

"So, have you thought any more about my offer?"

Malcolm continued staring out the car, "I don't think so, i've already signed up for the fencing club I don't think I want to split my time up even more during my freshman year just yet."

Lucia chuckled to herself, "epee, foil, or saber?" she asked.

"Epee, definitely epee." Malcolm responded as he started to drum his fingers on the cars windowsill.

The two of them remained silent for the rest of the ride to dorms where her lab partner Oscar Robertson was waiting for them.

"What took you guys so long, I was waiting for you forever." he said as he hopped into the backseat.

"Sorry," she shot him a glance through the rearview mirror, "class went lay."

He shrugged off the comment "Oscar Robertson," he said extending his hand up between the seats.

Malcolm shook it as he introduced himself to the newcomer however as he turned around he noticed the same two brother and sister students he occasionally ran into which seemed even more confusing as was now certain that he didn't have any classes with them.

Hey Oscar," Malcolm said, "do you know those two he said motioning towards the students."

Oscar turned around in the car obscuring Malcolm's view.

"What students?" He asked, a confused tone in his voice.

"That," Malcolm started as he started shifting uncomfortably in the passenger's seat to get a view, "aren't right there." Malcolm finished as he got a view of a slightly ajar statue of one of the university's founders he supposed.

Oscar shrugged returning his attention to the front of the car, "I don't know what your talking about, there's no one over there unless you were talking about the statue that is."

Malcolm shrugged settling back into his seat while Lucia looked at him concerned but ultimately continued on to their earlier destination.

At the store the three of them split into their respective groups, Oscar went to purchase pens, goggles and food, Lucia went through the cleaning Isles while Malcolm tagged along for a while before split off to find a potted plant before heading to the checkout isles before meeting up with Oscar and Lucia.

Malcolm looked at the others bags, Oscar with multiple bags filled primarily with pens, other school equipment and a few bags of chips, Lucia who had bought a bag full of clorox wipes, a small plug in air freshener, which I couldn't blame her for, of course any freshman college dorm ever probably smelled great the floor I had gotten seemed to have a permanent hint of mildew, and what appeared to be clorox toilet bowl cleaner.

Oscar appeared shocked, "what do you need that for, don't the custodians clean the bathrooms in your dorm?"

Lucia rolled her eyes, "I'm in one of the better dorms, a few of us get are own private bathroom."

"And you," he said turning to me, "that's a… uh … neet plant."

Malcolm frowned, "aren't you a biology major."

Oscar clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Chemistry major actually."

Lucia started to chuckle but quickly regained her composure, "come on, let's get back to campus."

"Yeah, actually would you mind dropping me off at the train station, I thought i might go home and surprise my younger sister this weekend for her birthday."

Lucia looked at Malcolm apologetically who only shrugged, "The train station is only five minutes away from the campus, I don't mind."

She nodded and the three of us returned to her car throwing our stuff in the trunk before dropping Oscar of at the train station.

The two of them than continued on their way back to campus parking in the lot as they both retrieved their goods from the car's trunk.

"Damn it," Lucia said as she pulled out two extra bags, "Oscar must have forgotten his bags."

"Do you know if he'll need any of that stuff at home?" Malcolm asked.

"Not sure," Lucia responded, "do you know what time the train is supposed to leave?" she asked as she pulled her phone out.

Malcolm closed his eyes trying to picture the trains time table, "I believe they arrive at five and depart at five ten.

"We can probably still get to him before the train leaves."

"I guess so, back in the car."

The drive back to the train station was silent, as soon as Lucia pulled up to the parking lot she shoved Malcolm Oscar's bags and threw him out of the car while she found a place to park.

The train had already arrived and Malcolm had to bite back a curse as he shouldered past the group of people leaving the train station.

"Hey kid, watch it,"

"Sorry." Malcolm said continuing to maneuver through the crowd as he kept on craning his neck to try to find Oscar.

"Malcolm, over here."

Malcolm sighed in relief, standing just on the side of the giant mob was Oscar who thanked Malcolm and quickly grabbed the two bags before he was swallowed into the train with the rest of the passengers.

Lucia sauntered up to Malcolm as the train started to pull away from the station, "glad to see you got to him in time."

Malcolm nodded, "yeah, I guess you didn't really need to park.

"yeah , well I was getting hungary, I figured that there would be a restaurant inside the station," she said eying Malcolm inquisitively.

Malcolm checked his watch, a small metal wrist watch that his father gave him on his tenth birthday, "five twenty, isn't that a little early for dinner?"

Lucia shrugged, "I had an early lunch, are you in"?

Malcolm looked around finding nothing but a couple of clothing stores, a target and a few apartments, "yeah there's not much else around here plus , I don't really want to walk back to campus.

The restaurant inside of the train stop was a sandwich place, not that filling but Malcolm didn't need anything that large he just ordered a bowl of soup and spent the majority of the meal stirring the bland vegetables and noodles that made up his minestrone around in the cup as he watched Lucia wolf down her turkey club.

"Are you not hungry?" She asked noticing Malcolm had barely touched his soup.

Malcolm managed a good natured smile as he pushed the mostly full cup of minestrone away from him, "I had a large lunch."

Lucia shrugged as she got up to throw away the wrapping her sandwich had came in when she stopped her hand hovering over a stack of carry out soup lids but she stopped as her view was drawn out of the station and through the window to where her car was parked in the parking lot.

"What the…" Malcolm noticed she went silent for a few seconds before she started to fumble in pockets for her phone, "Damn it," she silently cursed. "Hey Malcolm," she called over to him "do you have a phone on you?"

Malcolm nodded he silently approached her and looked out the window and what he saw made his skin crawl.

The two students, that he had been wondering about since he first arrived at college, were standing next to Lucia's car both with what seemed to be arm length knives attached to their elbows.

He watched, partly in horror and partly in curiosity as one continued to shred the tires of Lucia's Corolla while the other started to look around, which was when Malcolm finally got a good look at them.

"Does he have…" Lucia stuttered for the correct words.

"Antena, yes." Malcolm supplied as he watched in awe as what originally looked like two weird strands of hair moved around on their own in their direction, he was even more surprised when he noticed that the knives that looked like they were replacements for the monsters arms were actually attached to the creatures knees, in a sort of weird double leg feature, if legs stopped at the feet and instead of feet you had the end of knifes.

"Is it just me or do they look like giant grasshoppers." Lucia asked remaining still as a statue.

Malcolm nodded in horror as his gaze moved down to the creature's mouth, it was shaped just that of an insects, two horn like mandibles protruded from its cheeks, above a small mouth that seemed to be filled with razor sharp teeth.

Malcolm swallowed nervously before he hastily took a step back hiding himself from their view,

"We should get out of here." Malcolm said mainly to himself.

Lucia looked at him impatiently, "what are you talking about, you want to just leave my car here and let those, things, destroy it?" she motioned angrily at said beings.

Malcolm took a breath as he searched his pants for his dagger hoping he for some reason brought it with him even though he was almost sure he left it back in his dorm.

"Look," Malcolm started, "let's just wait until those things leave, whatever they are they seem to have been following me."

Lucia sighed and then started to the door on the other side of the building and motioned silently for Malcolm to follow her.

Malcolm hesitated before quickly grabbing a lid to put on his small cup of soup, he wanted at least something to hold onto if he had to face whatever those things were.

"If those are the guys you were talking about earlier we should get going then, they my not stay there for long."

Malcolm nodded and hastily got to his feet following Lucia.

"So, now what?" Lucia asked Malcolm, the two of them had crossed the track and were then positioned between the building a train that had just stopped, and a billboard for the newest broadway show that Malcolm would have been overjoyed to pay more attention to but right then he had larger things to worry about, such as, getting away from whatever it was that those grasshopper things were.

Sure, that should have been easy for Malcolm, he had spent an average of hours figuring out the best tactical retreat possible when facing overwhelming odds, all the other campers would have some sort of special power allowing them to safely get away or take care of two giant grasshoppers with knifes, Malcolm however was unarmed and stuck with an unaware burden, a son of Hermes might be able to sneak past the two overgrown garden pests, Jackson would always have his sword on him, plus he could use any water that was around to cause a diversion.

Malcolm shook his head freeing himself of those thoughts, "I know someplace we can go to, we can call for help there."

Lucia looked at him like he was an idiot, "What do you mean, campus is just five minutes from here."

"Look," Malcolm said peering behind the billboard to try to get a better look, "I know somewhere where we can get help for your car problem."

"You know a mechanic?"

"Something like that."

Lucia shrugged, "Well, why not, something tells me that this might be more exciting than a typical college weekend so let's get going."

Malcolm nodded "First things first we should probably lose are pursuers." he said viewing the two giant grasshoppers who had given up shredding the car, presumably assuming that there was no food in the car, and were now getting closer and closer to the train tracks.

"We should circle around back to the car."

"What do you mean," Lucia whispered back, "the car wouldn't be able to get going with all of the tires torn to strings."

"We only need what's inside the car."

"What do you mean, cleaning supplies…" Lucia asked as recognition dawned on her "lets go." she said grabbing Malcolm's wrist pulling him further into the depths of the city.

Quickly after shuffling down the streets losing the sights of the grasshoppers Lucia abruptly let go of Malcolm's hand and turned to face him fire in her eyes, "What the hell are those things?"

Malcolm shrugged confused, sure he knew about the gods goddesses and monsters of the world, but he had never come across these things before, either in legend or life. "I have no idea."

Lucia glared at him obviously suspecting that Malcolm wasn't telling her everything.

Malcolm chanced a look back towards the train station, where the giant monster grasshoppers were, either expecting them will be milling about the station or about to sink their weird mouth parts into the nearest human.

"However as he looked back the grasshoppers seemed to be paying the mortals no attention and were happily content just trying to maneuver their ways through the crowded streets of New York while mortals, who obviously had their vision blurred by the mist shouted out comments like,

"Hey someone's dogs are on the loose."

"Those are rather large rabbits."

"Who let those pigs out of the state fair pens."

Malcolm shook his head, those puny minds of mortals never succeed to amaze him, all those people seeing completely different things.

Still, one thought flickered at the back of his mind, _Is Lucia a Demigod or can she just see through the mist?_

Lucia snapped her fingers right underneath Malcolms nose and broke him out of his trance, "seriously, Malcolm, what the hell is going on, everyone else is just wondering about like this is just all part of living in New York."

Malcolm nodded shouldering past others"sorry, it's a long story… I'll fill you in after we get away from whatever those things are."

Lucia sighed, no doubt annoyed at the level of information she was getting but also seemed to calm down slightly as she followed Malcolm down countless side streets in their attempt to circulate back around to Lucia's car.

Malcolm stole a glance back as the two of them finally found themselves crossing the tracks to make sure they still had time, and much to his relief it looked like the did, the two giant grasshoppers paid the crowds of New York shoppers no mind as they continued their search.

"The good thing is that they haven't seemed to have pinpointed our location yet."

"And the bad news?" Lucia inquired her steady gaze lingering on their two pursuers.

"I don't have anything else."

"Well let's get going"

Malcolm nodded as he tried to remain calm as the two of them inched their way ever so closer to Lucia's car.

As the two finally made it to their destination Malcolm looked over to Lucia who pulled out her keys and unlocked the trunk resulting in a soft click, and more terrifyingly to Malcolm, a couple of high pitched chirps.

Malcolm didn't even bother to look as he dived behind the car.

"Why do you have to have such a loud car?" He said through the corner of his mouth.

Lucia grabbed the bag containing her supplies and walked back to where Malcolm was crouching and pulled him to his feet.

"Come on, either let's get to the help you promised."

"Of course." Malcolm said stealing a glance back of the two giant grasshoppers now seemingly locked onto their location. "Let's hope they have poor vision." He mumbled more to himself than Lucia who decided to comment anyways.

"I'm not sure that's how their tracking is."

Malcolm motioned for Lucia to follow him as he darted out from behind the car and made a beeline towards where he assumed Annabeth would be staying for the school year as she had mentioned that she would be staying in New York to help reconstruct Mount Olympus shortly after their earlier conversation.

Malcolm led the two of them through multiple side streets trying never to stay on a straight path for too long before making an abrupt turn.

Fortunately Lucia managed to keep up with him, plus he thought to himself the two giant grasshoppers seemed to have stopped for the moment to catch their breath.

Unfortunately however grasshoppers can well, hop, and before he knew it one of them had jumped over both of Lucia and his heads and landed right smack dab in the middle of their way.

Also unfortunately, Malcolm had led them into a lesser traveled side street, so while their were no mortals, besides Lucia he thought, the nearest intersections were either in front of or behind their pursuers.

Lucia stumbled back trying to put as much distance between her and he monster as possible, while Malcolm just mumbled incoherently to himself as the monsters knife like mandibles scissored open and closed releasing what Malcolm could only asume were other demigod bones and flesh along his way.

 **Just a quick authors note, I in no way am demeaning the hardships business majors go though, as without them none of the science majors would ever get grants. But seriously, I respect everyone's choice of majors. Also the only thing I put in this story that I found out online is that they have a good nursing program. Also Lucia is in no way a self insert, I'm a male and a biology major, but I am inserting a typical mid westerners view of New York.**


	13. Boetia Burning

"Can you hand me your bag?"

"Yeah." Lucia handed Malcolm the bag containing the toilet bowl cleaner, but remained staring ahead at the monster slowly advancing towards them.

"Gods, I hope this works." Malcolm said as he started to fiddle with the container's cap.

"Gods?" Lucia repeated, obviously baffled by the choice of words.

"Its… its nothing." Malcolm uttered hoping to just get out of the situation quickly so that he could explain everything in a safe atmosphere, or better yet, have Annabeth explain everything, she was always better at this sort of thing.

"Just… run." Malcolm yelled as he opened the container and squeezed the bottle in his hands resulting in an arc of the bleach mixture jetting outwards of the container and into the creatures face resulting in ear splitting screech from the creature.

Both Lucia and Malcolm darted past the giant grasshopper as it wailed in pain and used its forelimbs to wipe the bleach from its eyes, but by the time it had reorientated itself Malcolm, and Lucia were out of sight having taken the nearest side street.

Malcolm slowed down enough to let Lucia fall into pace besides him. "Were almost to my sister's, she can probably us some help.

Lucia shook her head as Malcolm led her further into the city, "I thought you were an only child."

"She's on my mothers side, it's long story, I'll…"

"Tell me later?"

Malcolm nodded, "yeah, this way I believe."

The two of them continued on their way stopping occasionally to make sure they were well ahead of the two monstrosities.

Eventually they made it to the apartment complex where were Malcolm remembered Annabeth was staying along with a roommate, a friend from school in California.

"Hold on," Malcolm said as he leaned against the entrance door and pressed the buzzer corresponding to her room, "This is Malcolm." he said looking at Lucia wondering how she was going to react to the gods and goddesses in world predicament.

"Malcolm," a voice that Malcolm didn't recognize carried over the speaker "Is this a friend of Annabeth's?"

"A relative," Malcolm said before silently cursing himself, luckily however, the voice didn't inquire any further. "I'll buzz you up."

Annabeth's apartment wasn't really anything to call home about, a small receiving area with a small kitchenette and a small hallway leading to two small bedrooms.

Annabeth's roommate was accommodating enough she offered the two of them each a cup of herbal tea.

"Annabeth should be back soon, she mentioned she was going out with her boyfriend for an early diner as apparently it's almost their one month anniversary..."

Malcolm opened his mouth to speak but only managed to inhale some of his tea and bnt over in a fit of coughing.

The roommate, Lauren as she had earlier introduced herself, turned to him concerned, "are you alright?"

Malcolm nodded and held his hand up in stopping gesture as he attempted to speak once again, "one month anniversary?that's a thing?"

Lauren ignored his question and turned her attention to Lucia as she continued with her previous line of conversation.

"Yeah, apparently she got Percy, her boyfriend, to agree to take her on a special diner."

"So why is this diner a prerequisite of another dinner?" Malcolm asked quite confused.

Malcolm was however spared the expense of looking any more foolish than he already felt as the door opened and in walked a clearly disgruntled Annabeth her shirts left sleeve was torn and there was a small bloodstain along tare which seemed to highlight the , her demeanor calming as she saw her roommate but hardened again as she noticed Malcolm and Lucia.

"Malcolm? What are you doing here?" her blonde hair was pulled into her classic ponytail but even that looked strained as there were small pieces of leaves and what looked to be bones stuck in her hair, as if she had just finished dumpster diving in a bad neighborhood in new Jersey.

"I had to ask for your advice."

Annabeth remaned tense for a moment before signed and scanned the room her eyes lingering on her roommate and Lucia before she returned her attention towards Malcolm.

"Let me get changed, after that we can talk in my room."

Annabeth's room seemed just as how Malcolm would have imagined it, little decorations, a small photograph of her father and the rest were escentials, basically a more decorative version of her spot in the Athena cabin.

Annabeth herself had changed out of her torn t-shirt and into an orange camp half blood one, she had also managed to get the larger twigs and leaves out of her hair and applied a band aid to cover the cut on her arm.

As soon as Malcolm opened his mouth to speak he noticed he was about to be on the receiving ends of one his sisters ice cold glare.

"Mind telling me what those things outside are, and what they're doing here?"

"Malcolm shrugged, "I was kind of hoping you could tell me that?"

Annabeth smiled, "and here I was thinking the day couldn't get any better, my dear older brother is asking me for my advice."

"It's not really advice its…"

Annabeth cut him off, "no, I also have no clue what they are, all I do know is that they have some pretty impressive natural armor, Percy was only able to cut on the monster's leg before they seemed to lose interest in us and fled south."

"Percy's here" Malcolm asked surprised that he hadn't seen him.

"No, he left after making sure the monsters left, he said something about needing to get home in time to help his mother with some chore."

"So you have no idea what they are." Annabeth said sighing as she took a seat at the edge of her bed and motioned Malcolm to sit down beside her "hand me daedalus's laptop."

Malcolm grabbed the sleek metallic machine and handed it to his sister who got to work right away furiously typing in her password then minutes later the key words, presumably, giant insectoid like monster.

I peered over her shoulders as she scrolled through the search results,

Giant grasshopper found in Montana, "most likely a hoax." The two of us stated simultaneously.

Haakapainiži, a giant grasshopper native to Southern California, according to the laptops unique monster scanning daedalus built in it was apparently still reforming after the last time someone had killed it by throwing a heated rock down the monsters throat.

Isn't modern technology wonderful.

We knew we were screwed when we began scrolling past articles titled top ten mythical insects that will make your skin crawl, and the fascinating post on how all intelligent life in earth is actually just cicadas masquerading around as multiple species.

We were about to give up when I pointed out a link that looked semi respectable.

"Look Malcolm I know you want to figure out what those things are but aren't there more pressing issues we should discus…"

Malcolm ignored his younger sisters advice and clicked on the link.

"Hey watch it." Annabeth hissed at him, there might be viruses on that site."

"Ultra powerful Greek demigod laptops can get viruses, great, there goes my…

The two sibling remained silent as the page loaded, in the upper right hand corner there was a picture of one of the creatures with its mandibles wrapped around the dead carcass of a zebra and a caption right below it reading, _Aklm._

Annabeth scrolled down the page reading aloud bits that may be of use later on.

"Found primarily in deserts… sure New York is like a desert." she scoffed sarcastically.

"Status, alive, thanks I couldn't tell."

"Hard armor like exoskeleton, a little late but I'll take it."

"Ahh here's the good stuff Annabeth said getting quiet."

Malcolm wanted to read along but thought better of it, Annabeth hated anyone reading over her shoulder and Malcolm new this from first hand experience,

Annabeth drew in a long shaky breath as she closed the laptop and put it on her nightstand, "Okay, well the good news is that it died before, the bad news is that it doesn't really mention how, also its not Greek so it's got that going for it as well."

"I kind of figured that, the only grasshoppers I remember in Greek mythology were taken from that one cicada fable, which wasn't really a proper myth."

Also what are planning on telling your friend?" Annabeth asked inclining her head towards the lounge.

"Actually, I was hoping you would do that."

"Me, why me, you're the one who got her into all of this?"

"Yeah, but you're better at that sort of thing."

Annabeth sighed before standing back up. "Do you know if she's hungry?"

 **Yeah I know that toilet bowl cleaner isn't that highly pressurized but just roll with me here. Also, I do try not to do this but I do appreciate reviews as they help improve my writing style, as well as giving me motivation to continue on  
**


	14. Chalcis Burning

"Wait, so all of that's been happening? A confused Lucia wondered aloud t the cafe that Annabeth had led the three of them too. "Then why haven't more people noticed this?"

Malcolm sighed, this was always a fan favorite, explaining how mist works, fortunately, he was saved the hassle.

"Most mortals, eh, people have, they just, fortunately, can't see through the mist, otherwise you wouldn't believe how many ordinary everyday occurrences are results of some sort of divine meddling."

Ohhh here it comes Malcolm thought to himself.

What's this most stuff you guys keep mentioning?" Lucia asked having not touched the cup of coffee Annabeth had gotten her.

Yup, he was right Malcolm thought taking a sip from his hot chocolate, and three two one...

Annabeth sighed looking Lucia straight in the eyes. "It's basically a mechanism that prevents mortals from noticing the more strange mythological aspects like for instance Typhons march across the country was reported by weathermen as just being a giant streak of storms, and the explosion of one of Hephaestus forges in Washington was seen as Mt. St. Helens exploding.

Malcolm made a point of avoiding his sister's gaze at the mention of Mt. Saint Helens, after all, he was never the most supportive brother even after Jackson's whole, getting blown up in Mt. Saint Helens thing. Sure he had lent her a shoulder to cry on but…

"I should probably go talk to Chiron then, huh?" Malcolm said as he rose from his chair, "do you think you can drive Lucia here back to campus?"

Annabeth shrugged, "Chiron might want to talk with her, you know how protective he is with mortals who can see through the mist," besides she said smirking, "you could use the company."

"Where are you going?" asked a confused Lucia

"Camp, Malcolm said still focusing entirely on his sister "you don't happen to have any extra weapons do you, I left my knife back in my dorm."

Annabeth frowned as she patted the sheath that was fitted onto her belt. "I'm afraid not, I just have my own dagger, but there's a safe house not far from here that if I remember correctly we stashed with three bows and more arrows than you can find at the parking garage at JFK."

Malcolm nodded "where exactly is this?"

Annabeth pulled out a pen from her jeans pocket and started sketching a map on a napkin. "Down second street and the first parking garage on the left. Next, you'll want to head down to platform b, there should be a small alcove behind the elevator with a bike rack, and a janitor's closet behind it.

Malcolm nodded but remained silent.

"The closet hadn't seemed used there back in my times traveling with Luke and Thaila hopefully for you it will have remained like that."

"Anyway," Annabeth said in a sudden change of tone, "good luck you guys, and," she said turning towards Lucia "it was nice meeting you but I should get back to the apartment."

Malcolm stood up, "of course, thanks for all of the help, and I'll see you over winter break."

"Mmhhmm" Annabeth nodded, "don't get yourself killed."

Malcolm just smirked, "You do realize I'm not your boyfriend right, I don't start fights I know I can't win"

Annabeth smiled knowingly before leaning over, and saying aside to Lucia, remind me to tell you about the great Oregon trail debate."

Malcolm grimaced, first of all, I was completely out of it from the amount of morphine I had been given, and two if Oregon trail does not promote communism then why…"

Annabeth cut him off "Oh, look at the time sorry but I got to run." she said before taking off presumably back to her apartment.


End file.
